APPENDIX XXII. 



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES FEOM MINNESOTA. 



Saint Paul. — I find that I can add another grapshopper year to the Minnesota list, 

 i. e. 1866. It was not a visitation, but simply an appearance. They passed over a 

 town in Kandiyohi County, and stopped over for one night ; left the next day, and 

 nothing more was heard of them in this place. They were also seen id nearly the 

 same way at or near Redwood Falls. Probably these were only some stray swarm of 

 the invasion of that year, and though it amounts to nothing as an " invasion," goes 

 to swell up the facts in regard to the general state of the case. 



I have been expecting to alight on something that would show the appearance of 

 locusts here in 1867, but so far I have found nothing. The invasion was so close to 

 lis (in Iowa) that probably swarms passed over Southwest Minnesota ; but the country 

 was unsettled then. 



Mr. C. H. Bates, a surveyor living at Yankton, writes, January 28, 1878 : 



" Since receiving your letter, I have examined files of our local papers, and find no 

 mention of them (locusts in 1873). Taylor (editor of the Herald) tells me that it was 

 an understanding between the papers to make no mention of them that season. The 

 grasshoppers ivere here that year, but did not do much damage. I have talked with 

 several of the farmers in this vicinity, and find their memories are a little conflicting 

 as regards events that year, but all say they were here. From ioformation received, 

 I will say : Grasshoppers were here during the summer of 1873, and damaged the crops 

 somewhat, as near as I can learn, in sections or streaks, that is, in some localities they 

 did considerable damage, while in others they did none. The wheat was most all har- 

 vested ; and I see that 'the papers reported the crop good, both as regards quantity and 

 quality, and, the papers say, better than in 1872. Corn and oats were but part of a 

 crop ; in some sect ons it was all taken. The first flying of the grasshoppers was from 

 the northwest to southeast, about the 4th of July. No eggs were deposited; and, in 

 fact, none, to any extent, ever have been, except in the summer of 1876. I mean by 

 the above that no e^gs were deposited within the settlements in Southeastern Dakota. 

 In the central part, some hatched in 1874." 



On further inquiry as to this latter statement, Mr. Bates adds : " The sand-hills of 

 the Cheyenne of the North, and west of the Missouri River, near the west boundary of 

 the Territory, about the 46th parallel of latitude. This I get from a man who was in 

 that country in 1874." 



From what Mr. Bates says in regard to the injury — slight to wheat and severe to 

 oats and corn — I should judge that the visit in i)akota Territory that year was later 

 than in Minnesota and in Iowa, and I believe I have already told you that Mr. F. J. 

 Cross, immigration agent, said that a few eggs were laid near Yankton in September. 

 But, though they did appear early in June in Minnesota and in Iowa, they kept com- 

 ing, were going north over Jackson, Minn., on the 2d of August, and came into some 

 Iowa counties in August — Harrison, for instance. 



In regard to low^a, I have now reports : 



1857, 1858. — Ida, Harrison, Pottawattamie, and Montgomery Counties. 



1858, 1859.— Woodbury County. 



1864, 1865.— Woodbury County. 



1867,1868. — Dickinson, Kossuth, Sioux, Palo Alto, Plymouth, Buena Vista, Pocahon- 

 tas, Humboldt, Ida, Lac, Calhoun, Webster, Hamilton, Carroll, Greene, Boone, Harrison, 

 Audubon, Guthrie, Cass, Adair, Warren, Montgomery, Union, Page, and Ringgold Coun- 

 ties. 



1868, 1869. — Woodbury, Crawford, and Pottawattamie Counties. 



1874. — Hatched in the counties of Lyon, Osceola, Dickinson, Emmett,^ Kossuth,^ 

 Sioux,2 O'Brien^ (eggs deposited in June 4, 1873, and hatched same year), Plymouth,^ 

 Pocahontas, Humboldt, Wright (in west half), Woodbury, Lac, Calhoun (many in north 

 half), Webster, Monona (?), Harrison, Pottawattamie, > Mills,^ Montgomery, Union (a 

 few). Often appeared to be about the east limit in that latitude. 



iJn very great numbers. ^Lu very small numbers. 



[2301 



i 



