32 



DAMAGE TO CROPS. 



The form and substance which this report might have been ex- 

 pected to assume early in the season, have changed considerably 

 under changing circumstances. The various means of contending 

 with the locust have been set forth generally and in detail during 

 the past four months; and the amount of damage which has been 

 inflicted upon the crops, while it might have been ascertained with 

 some precision in five or six counties, has become a different mat- 

 ter when combined with severe losses by drouth, and extending 

 over thirty -five or more counties. The exact amount of loss in so 

 many different counties, varying as it does from almost total loss 

 of the grain crops to slight injury to gardens and late corn, can 

 not be arrived at with any less efficient machinery than that of 

 the Commissioner of Statistics, to whom the whole of this portion 

 of the subject properly belongs. 



Of grain, the oats and barley have, as usual, suffered the most; 

 in Raymond, Stearns county, where the locusts were most numer- 

 ous from the 23d of July to the 20th of August, " the Lost Nation 

 wheat was only slightly damaged, while the Fife wheat was ru- 

 ined. " (So stated by L. B. Raymond, Esq.) The same fact was 

 noted by P. Hoffman, Esq., of Westport, Pope county; but it is 

 not known how generally the rule will apply. 



Corn and potatoes have escaped with less damage everywhere, 

 though corn attacked in the silk has been ruined. Peas are never 

 specially mentioned except to note their escape from injury. ("On 

 the whole, we consider peas and potatoes the best crop to raise. " — 

 S. S. Gilliam, Big Bend, Cottonwood county.) Sorghum is almost 

 locust proof so far, both against the young and old. Flax, tobacco 

 and beans are generally mentioned to note their almost total destruc- 

 tion. Farms lying on the east side of lakes have generally suffer- 

 ed less than others, both in this state and Dakota. In some cases 

 farms situated in the timber have been passed over altogether: in 

 others they have yielded 5 to 10 bushels to the acre, while crops 

 on the prairies in the same town have been failures; on the other 

 hand, rarely the timbered portions of a town have suffered more 

 severely than the prairie farms. 



PRACTICAL METHODS OF CONTENDING WITH THE YOUNG LOCUST. 



The different means of contending with the locust both in the 

 egg and the unfledged state, have been set forth so fully and so 

 often within the last two years, that they ought by this time to 



