668 The Rocky Mountain Locust. [ November, 
protect their crops, — obliging the insects to resort to the unculti- 
vated areas. 
Were the injury to continue for another three or four years as it 
has for the past four, and were the Western farmers to suffer a few 
more annual losses of forty million dollars, such schemes as I 
have suggested would soon be carried out. The danger is that 
during periods of immunity, indifference and forgetfulness inter- 
vene until another sweeping disaster takes us by surprise. 
Rules greatly assist in the solution of any problem, and in pro- 
portion as we get at a knowledge of the laws governing this 
Rocky Mountain locust shall we be able to overcome it. The 
country which it devastates is so vast, and the question as to its 
origin and the causes of its disastrous migrations is so compli- 
eated, that a limited study is apt to beget doubt as to whether 
there are any laws governing the insect or any rules for our 
guidance. The facts of sociology are so innumerable that the 
ordinary gleaner of them reaps but confusion. It requires the 
genius and comprehensiveness of a Herbert Spencer to deduce 
principles therefrom, — to perceive the laws by which society is 
molded. The vain, delusive confidence begot of first study of any 
difficult subject — that follows superficial knowledge, — reacts 
in doubt and diffidence upon deeper delving and more thor- 
ough study. 
“ The more I learn the less I know ” is a paradoxical but very 
common remark, It is only after passing through this period of 
doubt in any inquiry that we can begin to see the light ; and in 
this locust inquiry it is only after accumulating facts and experi- 
ences until they almost overwhelm us with their complexity that 
we can begin to generalize and deduce rules. 
The history of this insect east of the Rocky Mountains, when 
viewed from a comprehensive stand-point, presents certain well- 
marked features. We have, first, the migrations of winged 
swarms in autumn from the higher plains of the West and - 
Northwest, into the more fertile country south of the 44th par- 
allel and east of the 100th meridian. It is the more fertile and 
thickly-settled country south and east of the limits indicated 
which suffers most, both from the insects which sweep ma cf 
and from the young that hatch in its rich soil; and it is prne- 
pally this country which I have designated as being outside the 
insect’s native home, and in which it can never become a perma- 
nent resident. The species does not dwell permanently even 1m 
much of the country north and west of those lines, but it foe 
