[256] EEPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



7. The eggs were mostly deposited in a sacdy, gravelly soil. 



8. Ttie young were most numerously hatched on sandy, gravelly soil and uncultivated. 



9. The first insects acquired their wings from the 1st to the 5th of June, 1877. 



10. June 10 they first began to migrate, but the distance traveled was short and the 

 numbers limited. 



11. In this district about one-fourth the crop. 



12. The wheat-crop suffered most. 



13. Pease are most easily protected. 



14. Pease and rye suffered least, also fall crops. 



15. The young insect generally travels south and west unless headed by streams or 

 insurmountable obstacles, such as marshy or barren lands. 



16. The means employed for their destruction are numerous : in the early stages, driv- 

 ing on to straw and burning, a brush-drag on dry cultivated lands: advanced stages, dry 

 ditches from two to four feet deep, sloping under on the side next to the crop, and pits 

 in the ditch every one or two rods, about three feet deep, narrow in the bottom ; in this 

 last method hundreds of bushels have been destrojyed; by burying them in ihe pits, 

 and then digging others ; another method is to drive them into running streams, catch 

 them in sacks and bury them ; in this way large quantities have been destroyed; the 

 dry ditch is a good protection against their ravages. 



17. We have not been able to protect our crops against or destroy the winged 

 insects. 



18. We have not employed any mechanical means to any great extent, and are there- 

 fore unable to report how far they might be useful. 



19. We were visited in 1876. 



20. W"e were visited in the years 1866, 1867, 1868, and 1869, the first visitation being 

 on the 10th of September, 1866; the crops were totally destroved in 1867, and partially 

 in 1888 and 1869. 



21. Domestic chickens have been very useful in destroying grasshoppers in gardens, 

 &G., and on some parts of the farming land, but not to any great exte.. t. 



22. On the lOih of September, 1866^ was the first invasion I know of; cabbage?, tur- 

 nips, and a few late vegetal/les were destroyed ; the grain was mostly cut and in the 

 stack ; they continued to arrive for some time that fall, depositing their eggs, which 

 were hatched the following spring. 



In 1869 large numbers of the insects were destroyed by a parasite eating their vitals. 

 I am informed the parasite is formed by a small black fly deposititg an egg in the 

 grasshopper. A few have died in this manner this year. 

 Respectfully, 



FRANCIS SHARP. 

 Prof. A. S. Packard, Jr. 



Logan City, Cache County, Utah, June 15, 1877. 



Dear Sir: I have lived in Utah since l.'^52, but have not kept a correct journal of 

 the grasshopper invasions. But in the fall of 1?;54 they came from the north and 

 laid their eggs and then swarmed the country in the spring of 1855, and eat up three- 

 fourths of the crops in Utah. They came from the same direction- in the fall of 1866, 

 and eat u-p about one-half of the crop of Cache County ; they came again in the fall of 

 1876 Irom the same direction. They hatch when the weather becomes warm, and after 

 a little rain they commenced to fly, this year, about the 1st of June. They eat about 

 one-third of the crops this year in this county. They hurt pease less than anything. 

 They commence flying about 10 o'clock a. m., with a little breeze from the south; they 

 travel south by wings, but this spring they hopped to the west a little south. They 

 lay their eggs mostly in clay land. I have proven the best mode to save crops to be 

 to dig holes and drive them into them and bury them. A large prof)ortion of the crop 

 has been saved by ditching and digging holes in the bottom of the ditch about a rod 

 apart. 



One year they drifted into Salt Lake, and it was a well-known fact that at one point 

 they drifted ashore and piled up on the beach six feet high and two miles long. 

 I remain, yours, 



HENRY BALLARD. 



Prof. A. S. Packard, Jr 



Heber City, Wasatch County, Utah, 



July 23, 1877. 



Sir: In answer to your communication in regard to the grasshopper habits, &c., the 

 following is the best information that I can obtain from farmers and others living in 

 this county. 



They fly from 10 a. m. to 4 p. m., from northeast to southwest, light breeze, gener- 

 ally with the wind. 



Departure in July and August, carried by a light breeze, generally clear weather. 

 In the summer of 1868 they were like a cloud between us and the sun, and when the 



