APPENDIX III. TEXAS DATA FOR 1877. [G7] 



Ic. South ; very thick ; extended as far as the eye could reach ; very hi^h. 



2. Cannot answer properly ; some leaving and more coming every doy : but the most 

 left about October the 10th. 



3. Began the 24th of Septemher ; laid immensely during two or three weeks. 



4. Saw the first the 2d of March, 1877, and continued for over a month. 



5. Seems to me that nearly half did not hatch out ; some Carabldoi ate a good many ; 

 hear it said that the prairie chickens have scratched out and destroyed a good many. 



6. In all rocky and dry places along the roads, and in denuded but hard places on 

 the prairie ; don't deposit any eggs in plowed or soft ground. 



7. April 24. 



8. May 5. 



9. Suppose, in my Immediate neighborhood, at about a third. 



10. First, spring-oats; second, barley; third, wheat ; fourth, Indian corn. 



11. Don't know. 



12. The Indian corn, except when they are starving ; they hardly touch the English 

 peas and sweet- potatoes. 



13. Could not see that they were marching in any positive direction, seemed to be going 

 from the prairie to the branches and from the branches to the XDrairie ; they seemed 

 to be hunting covers to cast their skins ; when the wheat and other crops are high 

 enough, they stay in permanently until they get wings. 



14. None that I know of; except a few farmers burning them, in scattering straw 

 on their hatching-places, but that amounts to little. I have employed satisfactorily 

 young chickens ; 300 of them protected me about two acres of ground, planted in oats, 

 Irish potatoes, asparagus, &c. 



15. Not any. 



20. Nearly every fall by a few ; but immense swarms appeared in 1855, 1867, and 1874. 



21, 22. I can say nothing satisfactory about these questions. 



Mount Calm, Limestone County, March 10, 1877.— Having seen a notice in your 

 paper of February 24 that barley was six inches high in California, I thought that 

 perhaps you would like to know how it was doing in Texas. I went into a field of 

 barley March 5 that I sowed in October, and found some of the largest blades meas- 

 ured eighteen inches. My wheat sowed in November measured eleven inches. The 

 prospect for a small-grain crop is very good. Corn crop not yet in the ground in this 

 section, owing to the recent rains. Grasshoppers hatching out by the million on the 

 sandy land. I live on black land, and have not yet seen any eggs or 'hoppers, nor have 

 I heard of any on black land. Good land in this section sells from $3 to $6 per acre. 

 Improved lands rent readily from $4 to $5 per acre. — [John Fogarty, in Prairie Farmer. 



I will answer your questions seriatim as well as I can from the information at present 

 at my command : 1. "Area invaded." — The entire State, with the exception of the east- 

 ern or heavily timbered portion. 2. "Date of arrival." — About midday on the 20th of 

 September. 3. "Main direction of flight and wind." — Southeast, with wind in same 

 direction. After their first appearance here they remained some three weeks, and then 

 the major portion departed in the direction ramed. Two weeks subsequently they 

 returned in considerable numbers from the southeast, the direction of their original 

 departure. Their eggs were chiefly deposited after their last appearance. 4. " The 

 area over which eggs have been laid." — So far as I am informed, over the whole State, 

 with the exception mentioned in question first. Our State journals have been report- 

 ing the hatching of the eggs during the past four weeks. In this locality, myriads of 

 young locusts are visible. Already early gardens have been destroyed. Will they 

 probably damage our wheat and other crops ? — [John H. Stevens, Dallas, March Id, 

 1877. 



Wheelock, Robertson County, March 21. — Farmers have their ground prepared 

 ready for planting. Some have finished, and the corn is up and looking'well. Others 

 are holding back on account of the grasshopper. There ore millions upon millions of 

 the little imps already hatched out. They have done no great damage as yet. Look- 

 ing for them to leave every day. No restraint or welcome extended. Joy go with 

 them.— [T., in Prairie Farmer. 



Bosque County is complaining of grasshoppers ; the warm weather having brought 

 out the pests by the million.— [PmiHc Farmer, March 31, 1677. 



Mr. J. H. Beneke. just returned to San Antonio from New Mexico, first saw locusts 

 at Fredericksburg, about seventy-three miles west of San Antonio. They are about 

 half-grown there now.— [Note by Mr. Riley, April 5, 1877. 



Calopienns sprehis here in countless myriads. Commenced traveling north. — [J. H. 

 Myers, Salado, Bell County, April 7, 1877. 



The young 'hoppers have taken up their line of march ; course northwest. They are 

 about one-half to three-fourths of an inch in length. The first lot that hatched have 

 gone in the above direction for several miles to get into timber, brush, or sheltered 

 places. They have not done much damage yet. In general opinion their wings will 



