14 



fields in scattered bodies, or in no bodies at all, a peculiarity so 

 noticeable as to attract the attention of the farmers ; by the move- 

 ments of the swarms on leaving their hatching-grounds, in small 

 squads and in various directions ; and by the fact that where they 

 alighted first they left their eggs promiscuously here and there in 

 the grain fields, instead of in bodies and in selected spots as here- 

 tofore. There was no general flying from their hatching-ground 

 in large bodies, mostly in one direction, as was the case in 1874 

 and 1875. By the last week in June they began to leave some 

 places so imperceptibly that their departure could hardly be seen, 

 though their numbers were noticeably diminished. For the first 

 ten days of July, small squads went careering up and down, south 

 of the Minnesota river, and wherever there was anything 'like a 

 movement of large bodies they seem to have left the state to the 

 northwest, west, and southwest. In the meantime, others had 

 spread themselves northward towards the North Pacific Railroad, 

 and had alighted here and there in numbers sufficient to do con- 

 siderable damage. But, judging from the occurrences up to the 

 10th of July, had it not been for new-comers, next year would 

 have seen the insects so few and so scattered as to be incapable of 

 great damage, and they might become, in a year or two, as flitting 

 and as unnoticeable as the red-legged locust that breeds with us 

 every year. 



Probably this is all that can be made of the "degeneration" of 

 the locust so far as observed in Minnesota. It had not become so 

 impaired in strength nor so diminished in numbers as not to prove 

 a serious evil wherever it alighted or laid eggs. It was however 

 decreasing in numbers, and gradually becoming less capable of 

 reproducing itself. . Something might perhaps be added in regard 

 to changes in color and appearance; while the locusts which hatched 

 m Minnesota last spring had when fully developed something of 

 the darkness and dullness of old age, the brightness and fierce- 

 ness of the fresh invaders was apparent to every one. 



The facts stated show the general tendency, but there is a more 

 vital question than the tendency of the locust to degenerate here. 

 How long the state will continue to be one of the breeding- 

 grounds of the locust, is simply how long new hordes will continue 

 to sweep over us and leave here fresh seeds of future devastation. 

 Nothing is more certain than that we might, by general and 

 continued effort, practically eradicate the offspring of almost any 

 one year's invasion; nothing is more probable than that in almost 

 any season, the whole body of our hatching swarms might be 

 utterly swept away from our midst by favorable winds; and finally, 



