APPENDIX III. TEXAS DATA FOR 1877. [71] 



The grasshoppers that hatched in this section of the conntry and south have all left, 

 going northwest. They did some damage to wheat, oats, and corn in lields that hap- 

 pened to he in their course ; hut on the wliole the country has not sulTered very much. 

 The damage was done hy the young, unfledged locusts. Gardens were more particu- 

 larly injured.— [Letter from John H. Secrist, Austin, May 28, 1877. 



A gentleman, writing from Paso del Oso ranch, San Antonio, furnished Professor 

 Boll with the following data, with the understanding that his name should not be 

 published : 



1876. Saturday, 2lst October. — Thermometer ranged since 2d between 68° and 90°. 

 AYinds generally southeast; but at times pretty cool north winds, with light rains. 

 Grasshoppers arrived at sundown to-day. A noise like that made by bees swarming 

 on trees preceded their appearance about ten minutes; the wind commenced blowing 

 hard from the north — cold — bringing the grasshopper along like an immense dark 

 curtain moving toward us, and about 60 or maybe 80 feet high. 



Mondat/, 2'3d. — Grasshoppers finishing our four acres of beans, devouring mesquit 

 leaves and many weeds. 



4 p. m.— No decrease in grasshoppers : in our beds, on our jJillows, and all round us 

 last night. Heavy dew last night ; might be called a frost. 



Monday, GtJi Xovemher. — Heavy rain Saturday night ; night dark; norther with cold 

 wind. Grasshoppers left last night, but flies continue— real hard-biting fellows. 



The grasshoppers at this place, nine miles below San Antonio, laid their eggs in hard 

 ground on well-beaten roads, or on either side, showing no particular taste for a cush- 

 ioned bed. At the mission Espada, li miles above me — irrigable — they laid their eggs 

 alongside of the ditches. Those that were laid in the field, if they were disturbed 

 about time to move by plowing, jumped to the brush and grass along the ditches, com- 

 ing from their cover to devour our tomato and red pepper (three times); also, when 

 our melons and peas were large enough, they finished most of them, and a good deal 

 of our early corn, but left our oats untouched. 



About three weeks ago a large swarm (about three hours passing) passed over us, 

 and about a week ago another. They acted very difterently when they came last fall, 

 for they came then like an immense curtain, drawn along the ground from east 

 to west : but these went high and north. 



If the above extract from my ranch memorandum should prove of the least value 

 in aiding in the discovery of some means to destroy this infernal pest, I shall consider 

 myself well paid for what attention I gave the matter. 



No trajDS or other means of getting clear of the grasshoppers have been tried here. 



I forgot to say Paso del Oso is 9 miles in a straight line and 12 miles by the road 

 and on the right bank of San Antonio Eiver, below San Antonio. 



In 1875, the 'hoppers commenced arriving about eleven o'clock in the morning and 

 about twenty times as numerous as we sometimes see the common fishing 'hopper. 

 At that time they kept outside of the lowland fields, keeping outside of the fences ; 

 but the following spring they seemed perfectly at home in the river fields, where they 

 destroyed nearly all of fifty acres of my corn, which I had to replant. 



Texas farmers are beginning to believe that the grasshoppers were a deeply dis- 

 guised blessing. It is said that the most pestilential weeds have been eradicated, root 

 and branch, by the locusts. — [Colorado Farmer, June 7, 1877. 



The 'hoppers have all left here now. No one seems to know which way they went. 

 I think they went northwest, as the wind was for many days blowing from south, 

 and of course they went with it. — [Letter from H. C. Overaker, Piano, June 8, 1877. 



As you desire information about the locusts from all parts of the country and sup- 

 posing that you may not have any as far southwest as Victoria County, Texas, I quote 

 to you the following from a letter of June 12, just received from G" Onderdonk, an 

 eminent and trustworthy fruit-grower at Mission Valley: 



" The locusts have done me considerable damage ; they killed a large share of my 

 cuttings (grape) ; also by eating out the pear buds set in my quince stocks last October. 

 They killed arbor-vitie trees six feet high so completely that they are past recovery. 

 Yet the farming interest is not seriously atfected. Wheat, oats, &c., are harvested In 

 good order ; excellent yield. Corn is now in roasting ears, and will be heavy. Irish 

 potatoes gathered twenty days ago, very fine. The locusts have not hurt my orchards 

 nor my vineyards. They have depredated ' in spots. ' " — [Letter from Isidor Bush, Saint 

 Louis, June 20, 1877. 



The southern limit of the extension of the grasshoppers in Texas seems to be San An- 

 tonio and Houston, the latter place also including their eastern limit, as they never go 

 beyond that point. Farmers residing near Cypress City, some twenty-live miles north 

 of Houston, who have been living in the vicinity for over a quarter of a century, assure 

 me that they had no grasshoppers either last autumn or this spring. 



The investigations of this question for Texas are not yet accomplished, and this brief 

 report refers only to inquiries made in the southern portion of the State. 



The damage, generally speaking, is not important. The destruction last fall was 



