[136] EEPOUT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



Icy iu ^ soutlieasterly conrse, the wind being northwest. Mr. Moses Thatcher, the 

 superintendent of the Utah Northern Railroad, informed me that there had been as 

 much rain in Cache Valley in the spring as about Salt Lake, and that the locusts in 

 Utah had hatched later and more irregularly than usual, still they were very destruc- 

 tive in Cache Valley, and on one occasion the cars were stopped by the young, their 

 dead bodies greasing the track so that the wheels would not readily revolve. They 

 were also nearly as destructive in Malade Valley, I was told by Mr. Haight. 



Mr. Thatcher told me that in three settlements in Cache Valley the people drove 

 the young" locusts into dry ditches in which large holes were dug, these were filled 

 with locusts and then buried ; in this way, in the three settlements, 2,000 bushels of 

 locusts had been destroyed during this season. At the present date, women and boys 

 and girls could be seen near Franldin, brushing the locusts away from the wheat-fields. 



At Franklin, Idaho Territory, the locusts were very thick and destructive, and the 

 people seemed disheartened. I saw some young only recently hatched, while most 

 were in the pupse state, and many were winged. Thousands of the unfledged locusts 

 could be seen covering the fences and sides of barns and houses. 



Mr. Alexander Stalker, of Franklin, tells me that the parents of this swarm came 

 from a point about 200 miles to the north, and that they have this spring been hatch- 

 ing out between Franklin and said locality (near the Montana line) northward. The 

 swarm came early in September from a point a little east of north. The young locusts 

 hatched this spring at irregular intervals, i. e., " scattering." 



A person told me that at Kaysville a piece of ground containing the eggs was cov- 

 ered a long time with water, but the young locusts hatched out eventually, not having 

 been killed by the submergence. 



The young locusts were observed in bands or schools, moving in a northeasterly 

 course. Other schools moved southeast, according to the statement of another observer. 

 It is the opinion of farmers in Utah as well as Colorado, with whom I conversed, that 

 winter wheat stands the attacks of the young locusts best, as it gets tough before they 

 are old enough to eat the blades readUy. I advocated both in Colorado and Utah the 

 sowing of winter wheat, and several farmers with whom I conversed acknowledged 

 that this would be an important preventive measure, barring the liability in a climate 

 like that of Colorado and Utah of the crop to be cut off by severe cold. 



June 12. — Started from Franklin in the overland stage to Virginia City, Mont. 

 Young locusts (both larvae and papse) were observed in abundance along the road, but 

 about the shores of Market Lake were exceedingly numerous, the soil b^ing light and 

 sandy. 



June 13. — Locusts were observed all along the road as far as Snake River Bridge 

 (or Taylor's Bridge), where they were abundant and winged. I was told by Mr. Wood, 

 of Missouri, a fellow-traveler, that he saw a large swarm of locusts near Camas Creek 

 (north of Market Lake), July 20, 1876, flying in a direction south of east. 



June 14. — Crossed the " divide " into Montana early in the morning, in a snow-storm, 

 several inches of snow falling on the hills near the stage-road. No locusts were seen 

 on the divide or to the northward, though I walked two miles through the Beaver 

 Head Canon in places where they would be likely to occur, and it was warm and 

 pleasant, with a bright afternoon sun. The rains had been very heavy all the past 

 month. 



June 15. — Reached Virginia City without having been able to detect any locusts 

 along the road from the Rocky Mountain divide to this point. 



June 16. — Spent the day at the toll-house, three miles from Virginia City, on the 

 Bozeman road. Though I was walking about all day in search of the locust and 

 other insects, not a single young or winged locust could be detected. I was also told 

 by residents of Virginia City that there were no locusts this spring between the divide 

 and this point. (The information received from persons I met here will be found in 

 the Chronological History of the Locust.) 



June 17.— Rode by stage and wagons to Bozeman. Although a careful outlook was 

 maintained for locusts, none were seen, and none reported by the drivers and ranch- 

 men along the road, though valuable information about invasions in former years 

 was obtained from residents at Sterling. 



June 18. — Obtained much valuable information from several gentlemen in and about 

 Bozeman, and from General Brisbin, United States Army, in command at Fort Ellis, 

 which is recorded in the chapter entitled Chronological History. Several persons tell 

 me that the locusts appeared at Bozeman and vicinity in 1876. They came from the 

 northeast or east, over the Big Belt Mountains, and departed in a southeast direction 

 in one case, but usually go southwest. It seems most x^robable that the swarms which 

 - appeared in Bozeman and neighboring regions of Montana did not lay their eggs there, 

 but pushed on in a south or southwest course over the Rocky Mountain divide into 

 Idaho, into the region between Cache Valley and Pleasant Valley, where I encountered 

 their supposed progeny this summer in such numbers. The migration is invariably 

 from the Yellowstone Valley over the Big Belt Mountains, and many persons told me 

 that the swarms m their flight almost invariably, in crossing this elevated range, 

 passed over the farms lying immediately at the base of the mountains, which thus ia 



