120 REPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



case with other small grains. The loss on the potato crop, however, 

 was heavy as appears from the following exhibit taken from the same 

 reports heretofore referred to : 



Iowa 



Missouri 



Kansas 



ifebraska 



Aggregate 



Crop of 1874. 



Bushels. 



4, 806, 000 



2, 022, 000 



1,116,000 



275, COO 



219, 000 



Crop of 1875. 



Bushels. 

 8, 700, 000 

 6, 300, 000 

 4, 480, 000 

 1. 950, 000 



21, 430, 000 



Loss. 



Bushel/}. 



3, 894, 000 



4, 278, OUO 

 3, 364, 000 

 1, C75, 000 



13. 211. 000 



The loss in those States as shown by these figures amounts to 

 13,211,000 bushels, worth according to the average price in this section 

 in 1875 {21 cents), $3,556,970 j 68 per cent, of which is $2,418,739. 



In Minnesota the difference in the potato crops of the two years was 

 a little over 2,000,000, of bushels. 



The loss sustained by the destruction of gardens, which suffer more 

 perhaps in proportion to their value than anything else, when aggre- 

 gated amounts to a much larger sum than would be supposed. As bear- 

 ing upon this point and sustaining this view, we present the following 

 ingenious method of arriving at the loss by the destruction of gardens 

 in the locust-visited counties in Texas in 1877, as given by Serg. 0. A. 

 Smith, Signal-Service officer at Galveston : 



From the preceding, which I take as fair examples of the remaining devastated coun- 

 ties, I conclude that the damage to the grain crops in the G4 counties visited cannot ex- 

 ceed 5 per cent. Gardens everywhere appear to have suffered to a much greater extent 

 than the grain crops. They weTe reported as having been entirely destroyed in a large 

 number of cases, and were badly damaged wherever visited. Assuming that a large 

 percentage recovered from the ravages of the insects as in the case of the grain, I will 

 estimate 25 per cent, as totally lost. Taking the population of the 64 counties for the 

 year 1870 as a basis, and dividing it by five to get the approximate number of families, 

 and we have for the latter 84,304 ; assuming that one-half of these families have 

 gardens worth $75 each, that an average of 25 per cent, were destroyed, and we have 

 $790,350 as the approximate damage to gardens. 



Extend this method of estimating this item of loss to all the other States 

 and Territories visited by the locusts in 1874 or 1877, and it will readily 

 be seen that the aggregate amount is very far from being an insignifi- 

 cant sum ; nor can we consider the calculation an exaggerated one. 



Applying the same method of calculation to the visited portion of 

 Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas, and includ- 

 ing that for Texas, we have a loss on gardens alone in 1877 of a little 

 over $4,000,000. 



Let us suppose that the loss on other crops (except potatoes), gardens, 

 orchards, stock that died from want of food, &c., amounted to but one- 

 half the loss on the corn crop ; this would be, takin^x the lower estimate 

 on corn as heretofore given, something over $11,800,000. Adding to- 

 gether these three items— 



