RAVAGES Ob' OTHER LOCUSTS IN THE UNITED STATES. 445 



in the field I have described that they apiieared in the greatest intensity. After they 

 had stripped everything from the field, they began to emigrate in countless numbers. 

 They crossed the highway aud attacked the vegetable garden. I remember the curious 

 appearance of a large, flourishing bed of red onions, whose tops they first literally ate 

 up, and, not content with that, devoured the interior of the bulbs, leaving the dry 

 external coveriug in place. The jirovident care of my mother, who covered the bed 

 with chalf from the stable-floor, did not save them, while she was complimented the 

 next year for so successfully sowing the garden down to grass. The leaves were strip- 

 ped from the apple trees. Thej' entered the house in swarms, reminding one of the 

 locusts of Egypt ; and, as we walked, they would rise in countless numbers and fly 

 away in- clouds. 



As the nights grew cooler, they collected on the spruce and hemlock stumps and log 

 fences, completely covering them, eating the moss and decomposed surface of the wood, 

 aud leaving the surface clean and new. They would perch on the west side of a 

 stump, where they could feel the warmth of the sun, and work around to the east side 

 in the uiorning as the sun reappeared. The foot-paths in the fields were literally cov- 

 ered with their excrements. 



During the latter part of August and the first of September, when the air was 

 still dry, and for several days in succession a high wind prevailed from the northwest, 

 the locusts frequently rose in the air to an immense height. By looking up at the sky 

 in the middle of a clear day, as nearly as possible in the direction of the sun, one may 

 descry a locust at a great height. These insects could thus be seen in swarms, appear- 

 ing like so many thistle-blows as they expanded their wings and were borne along 

 toward the sea before the wind; myriads of them were drowned in Casco Bay, and I 

 remember hearing that they frequently dropped on the decks of coasting vessels. 

 Cart-loads of dead bodies remained in the fields, forming in spots a tolerable coating of 

 manure. 



lu tbe report of tbe Connecticut State Board of Agriculture for 1872, 

 page 3G3, Mr. Sidney I. Smith states that he has seen " hackmatack 

 trees ahnost covered with them, and entirely stripped of their leaves." 



In 1875 they were reported very injurious in Massachusetts, as the 

 following items will show : 



Grasshoppers in Boston. — We did not anticipate that Boston proper would ever be so 

 inconvenienced by the pests which have proved so destructive out West, but it is a fact 

 that grasshoppers are so numerous at the south end that they destroy the flowers in the 

 back yards to such an extent that hens are hired or bought to clear the premises and 

 save the ornamental plants which adorn the premises. These insects are not of the 

 Western pattern, but are native productions. If their ravages continue, it is possible 

 some of our Western friends will be called upon to raise subscriptions for the relief of 

 the floriculturists of Boston.— iBoston Journal. 



I venture to ask your advice in a grasshopper matter. Three years ago a party of 

 farmers and others in this commonwealth, tired of granite hills, gravel banks, and 

 sand flats, aud wishiug some little latent fertility in the original soil, combined to 

 effect, and did effect, the reclamation from the sea of about 1,400 acres of what origin- 

 ally was " salt marsh." We are amply satisfied of the fertility of thisland, and, so far, 

 all is good. Last summer, however, this land and the adjoining territory was scourged 

 with a plague of locusts or grasshoppers. Whether they came in such numbers owing 

 to the diking of these 1,400 acres, or whether they would, last year, have come in equal 

 numbers whether the marsh was diked or not, we cannot say. Our question is this, 

 and is at the same time the point upon which we pray your advice : Can we do any- 

 thing to diminish the number of these pests for next year? We could, for example, 

 flood this whole tract of land until early spring. Would this be advisable ? Any points 

 you would be kind enough to give us on the matter would be thankfully received.— 

 [Letter from C. Herschel, Boston, Mass., latter part of October. 



