AGRICULTURAL BEARING OF THE SUBJECT. 123 



CHAPTER IV. 



AGEICULTDKAL BEARING OF THE LOCUST PEOBLEM. 



This particular aspect of the " locust problem '^ is the one of most im- 

 portance to the people at large, to the citizens of the infested districts, 

 and to our national authorities ; it is also, doubtless, the one in which 

 Congress feels the most interest ; in tact, it embraces the chief object 

 for which the commission was created. Here we are expected to meet 

 and answer the questions, What has been and what is likely to be the 

 effect of locust visitations upon the agricultural development of the 

 great West? It is not difficult to answer the first of these questions. 

 This has already been done, in part, in the foregoing chapter, but will be 

 further considered in a more general manner in this. But the second is 

 the one in reference to which there is most anxiety, and in regard to 

 which the people and our national authorities are most desirous of 

 obtaining information. 



We will therefore consider these questions briefly in the order given, 

 but, at the same time, desire that it be understood we cannot undertake 

 to answer fully the second until we have completed our investigations, 

 as there are some important links in the history of these insects which 

 are yet in obscurity. 



The direct injury to the agricultural districts of the West is somewhat 

 fully shown in the preceding chapter. The manner in which an injury 

 is inflicted often has a much more disastrous or paralyzing effect than 

 the injury itself. Ten per cent, loss on the wheat or corn crop of a State, 

 if caused by excessive rains or dry weather, or, if it be the result of 

 some secret insect foe, as the wire-worm, grub-worm, or chinch-bug, wall 

 excite no alarm; but, if an invading swarm of locusts swoop down sud- 

 denly and unexpectedly upon an agricultural district and in a few hours 

 destroy one field in ten, a feeling of alarm at once takes hold of the en- 

 tire farming community, and the paralyzing effect is far greater than if 

 twice the amount had been destroyed by some slow and more usual pro- 

 cess. If this is repeated for two, three, or four years in succession the 

 discouraging effect is increased in like ratio. But, if instead of a loss 

 of ten per cent, an entire crop is destroyed, a feeling of alarm takes hold 

 not only of the farmers but of the entire population of the visited area, 

 especially if it be a newly-settled district, as our Western States and 

 Territories. In oriental countries, where the people have long been ac- 

 customed to such visitations and have learned to expect them, the par- 

 alyzing effect, as a matter of course, is not so great j but our western 

 districts are occupied by a population heretofore unaccustomed to such 

 injuries, and hence the shock which the agriculture of those sections 



