INSECTS 



all kinds of crops wherever they chanced to alight. In 

 the new localities they would lay their eggs, and the young 

 of the next season, after acquiring their wings, would 

 migrate back toward the region whence the parent swarm 

 had come the year before. 



The entomologists of the investigating commission in 

 the year 1877 tell us that on a favorable day the migrating 

 locusts "rise early in the forenoon, from eight to ten 

 o'clock, and settle down to eat from four to five in the 

 afternoon. The rate at which they travel is variously 

 estimated from three to fifteen or twenty miles an hour, 

 determined by the velocity of the wind. Thus, insects 

 which began to fly in Montana by the middle of July may 

 not reach Missouri until August or early September, a 

 period of about six weeks elapsing before they reach their 

 destined breeding grounds." The appearance of a swarm 

 in the air was described as being like that of "a vast body 

 of fleecy clouds," or a "cloud of snowflakes," the mass of 

 flying insects "often having a depth that reaches from 

 comparatively near the ground to a height that baffles 

 the keenest eye to distinguish the insects in the upper 

 stratum." It was estimated that the locusts could fly 

 at an elevation of two and a half miles from the general 

 surface of the ground, or 15,000 feet above sea level. The 

 descending swarm falls upon the country "like a plague 

 or a blight," said one of the entomologists of the com- 

 mission, Dr. C. V. Riley, who has left us the following 

 graphic picture of the circumstances: 



The farmer plows and plants. He cultivates in hope, watching his 

 growing grain in graceful, wave-like motion wafted to and fro by the 

 warm summer winds. The green begins to golden; the harvest is at 

 hand. Joy lightens his labor as the fruit of past toil is about to be 

 realized. The day breaks with a smiling sun that sends his ripening 

 rays through laden orchards and- promising fields. Kine and stock 

 of every sort are sleek with plenty, and all the earth seems glad. The 

 day grows. Suddenly the sun's'face is darkened, and clouds obscure 

 the sky. The joy of the morn gives way to ominous fear. The day 

 closes, and ravenous locust-swarms have fallen upon the land. The 



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