102 STATISTICS OF MINNESOTA. 



prodigiously multiplied, and be borne by the wind to such dis- 

 tances as to over run the country already indicated, where it is not 

 indigenous, and reach as far east as it did in 1874. To this end a 

 combination of favorable conditions, that only occasionally occur, 

 are necessary." 



In another portion of the same report, however, he does not hesi- 

 tate to say that, "this whole subject of the original source of the 

 swaims that at times lay our fertile valley country under such 

 severe contribution, is yet somewhat obscure, and should be invest- 

 igated by the government. " It would seem as though the most 

 "firmly convinced" were not without their misgivings considering 

 the slender stock of facts in possession. And so, finally it appears 

 that while in Europe they have never yet found out to an absolute 

 certainty where their locust came from ; in this country, also, the 

 whole subject of their origin is veiled in a certain obscurity. We 

 have come to know at last how little we do know. The origin or 

 habitat of the locust in this, as in other parts of the world, is 

 still a matter of doubt. 



The cause of their immense multiplication, at certain seasons, 

 we do not know, though heat and drouth seems to be favorable, 

 and cold and moisture unfavorable to it. The cause of their mi- 

 grations — is it instinct, is it desire for food, do they take a certain 

 direction in their flight from instinct or design, or are they only 

 borne about at the mercy of the winds ? Does superfluous vitality 

 and hunger cause them instinctively to rise high in the air in 

 order to spy out new lands, and do they go on repeating this until 

 they either perish on the seas or arid deserts, or till their Avings, 

 with favoring wind, have borne them to fields of ravage ? It has 

 been said that they are the creatures of the plains and arid, sandy 

 deserts. In Africa, Arabia, Russia and North America they are 

 obliged generally to pass over desert tracts to arrive at the lands 

 of fatness and fertility. Are these deserts most often their birth 

 place or their grave — which? " They come from the desert." 

 Were they born there or did they merely fly over \ The great 

 distance they have been met with out at sea, has been shown. 

 What positive evidence is there that these deserts are not, to a 

 certain extent, barriers against them, rather than favoring breed- 

 ing grounds ? It has been surmised that they have a cycle of 

 migration, and fly back again to their Rocky Mountain haunts 

 after visiting us. Have we a sufficiency of facts to establish this? 

 This season they flew north, south, east and west, over our state, 

 and are still with us, and unhappily not in the Rocky Mountains. 



If it be said that I have traveled a long way to arrive at such 



