INJURY DONE BY OTHER ' NON-MIGRATORY SPECIES. 457 



literally swarm, devouriDg nearly every green thing before them. They did much 

 injury to the grass-fields, and, now that is cut, they have betaken themselves to the 

 cultivated crops. In some cases, whole fields of corn and beans have been completely 

 stripped. Even the potatoes have not been spared. — \_Couniry Gentleman, August 10, 

 1871, speaking of insects in Maine. 



Grasshoppers are reported to have very seriously injured the corn, grass, and grain 

 crops (and in some cases orchards and nurseries) of the counties of Androscoggin, 

 Franklin, Knox, Kennebec, Lincoln, Oxford, Piscataquis, Penobscot, Waldo, and Som- 

 erset, in Maine. So serious has been the damage that the subject was made a topic at 

 V the recent State Agricultural Convention in that State. In Androscoggin County they 

 ' njured pastures greatly, and affected the condition and price of stock. Some grain- 

 fields were protected by drawing a rope across the heads at sunset, thus brushing off 

 the insects and preventing feeding. In Franklin County, a field of twelve acres of 

 sweet-corn was only saved by keeping a man in it continually to drive out the grass- 

 hoppers. One man in York County stopped their pas8a,ge to his fields by building a 

 brush-fence around them. — I American Agriculturist, 1871. 



These pests (the locusts) have been numerous and destructive during the past month, 

 in some portions of the Eastern States. In Sagadahoc County, Maine, the crops and 

 pastures were injured by them very much ; also in Hancock County. In Franklin, 

 many fields of grain were cut to save the crops from them and for feeding. In Oxford, 

 oats w^ere " eaten entirely down, as clean as though fed upon by sheep." In some por- 

 tions of Plymouth County, Massachusetts, they are reported to have eaten everything 

 green. In Caledonia County, Vermont, they have been very destructive. All through 

 Windsor they have been " a terrible scourge." In Orleans they are reported abund- 

 ant, and in Windham they have done "■ much injury to some of the crops." In Wayne 

 County, Pennsylvania, also, they are reported to have done much damage. — \_Montlily 

 Report, Department of Agriculture, for August and September, 1871. 



In 1872, locusts were again bad in the Eastern States, as will appear 

 by the following from the Mirror and Farmer (I^ew Hampshire) for 

 August 10 : 



The grasshoppers are making great havoc on the grass, grain, and corn. For a space 

 of about one and a half miles square they are destroying almost everything. Clover 

 is trimmed up all but the head ; oat-fields look like fields of rushes coming up to the 

 height of sixteen or eighteen inches without leaf or head. The leaves of wheat and 

 their kernels are eaten out. These choppers move back and forth two or three times a 

 day, and whole sections are almost alive with them. 



In 1874, they were again troublesome in the Mississippi Yalley and at 

 points in the East : 



The grasshoppers destroyed four acres of my wheat last fall; ate and destroyed my 

 timothy twice; sowed the ground again this spring, but as there are still plenty of 

 hoppers, there is not much hope for a stand. — [Letter extract from G. Pauls, Eureka, 

 Mo., November 10, 1874.] 



Some of our good friends in Suffolk County, Virginia, were unduly excited this sum- 

 mer over the idea that the Western destructive grasshopper, Caloptenus spretus of Uhler, 

 had found its way to the " sacred soil of Virginia." There was no denying the fact 

 that myriads of grasshoppers were devouring nearly " every green thing," even settling 

 on the trunks and limbs of trees, and gnawing the bark in a most unkind manner ; 

 and, as it appeared to be something altogether foreign to the locality, of course it 

 must be the Western pest. Specimens were forwarded to us, however, and a glance 

 was sufficient to show us there was no need for alarm, as it was quite a common spe- 

 cies in this part of the United States, and though rather too plentiful in this particular 

 locality, would not spread or become the terror that its Western distant relative has 

 proved. The insect is known as the Acridium americanum, and is of large size, often 

 measuring over two and a half inches in length.— [C. K. Dodge in Rural Carolinian, No- 

 vember, 1874. 



