10 



hoppers eat the mixture voraciously, but it does not seem to kill them. We find a 

 very tew dead grasshoppers, but practically the mixture does them no harm. We 

 have dusted the grass and weeds in the ditches with the raw. uumixed paris green, 

 where the grasshoppers were in great numbers, and upon examination next morning 

 we would find a few dead ones at the bottom of the ditch, but just as many living 

 ones feeding on the grass as before we sprinkled it with paris green; hence it seems 

 that this poison is not efficacious. 



I feel that the matter is one of great importance to the cotton planters of this 

 section, and I sincerely trust that you will send out one of your best men to Yieks- 

 burg and I will take pleasure in going with him to this property and taking care of 

 him while there, rendering every facility for destroying the pests. 



I am advised that in 1897 the first was seen of the grasshoppers in this locality in 

 any quantities, and that year they did but little damage, eating some cotton or corn 

 at the ends of the rows along the ditch banks. In 1898 they did more damage along 

 the ditch banks on this particular property, injuring probably one or two hundred 

 acres of cotton. However, they did not destroy any of it outright, while this year 

 they literally cover the larger part of the property, and in the foregoing letter I have 

 endeavored to give a correct estimate of the damage done to date. 



It is not the same species that we have had with us all along, and we are disposed 

 to fear that perhaps the grasshopper of the West or some other similar species is now 

 visiting us. 



Very respectfully. P. M. Harding. 



Hon. James Wilson, 



Secretary of Agriculture, U'-ishington, I). C. 



Mr. Harding's letter was referred to the Division of Entomology, 

 and Dr. L. O. Howard made the following reply: 



July 11. 1899. 

 Dear Sir: Your letter of the 6th instant, addressed to the honorable Secretary of 

 Agriculture, duly received and referred to this Division for attention. I wish to 

 acknowledge also the receipt of two large packages, one of corn and one of cotton, 

 sent from Benoit, Miss. An examination shows that the grasshopper which is depre- 

 dating so seriously on cotton, corn. etc.. in Mississippi proves to be what is known as 

 the differential locust {Melanoplus differenticdis Thos.). This is a common native 

 species of grasshopper, occurring every year throughout the Mississippi Valley. It 

 feeds normally on grasses, such as timothy, alfalfa, and clover, as well as the native 

 grasses, and is not especially an enemy of cereal crops or cotton. In Mississippi, 

 however, it has been known to multiply excessively in lowlands and waste grass 

 patches along ditch*-, and so forth, and to migrate from such situations into cotton 

 fields and neighboring cornfields. This hal>it. therefore, is unusual and peculiar, 

 and dependent on very favorable condition-, which have led to the unusual multi- 

 plication of the grasshopper. The habits of this species have 1 >een detailed in three 

 of our bulletins relating to grasshoppers or locusts. I am sending you a copy of 

 each of the three, namely, Nos. 25, 27. and 28, old series, giving habits of different 

 species of grasshoppers and the means of control. The differential locust is dis- 

 cussed in Bulletin No. 25 on page 30, in Bulletin Xo. 27 on pages 62 and 63, and in 

 Bulletin Xo. 28 on pages 15 to 17. I refer you particularly to the advice as to reme- 

 dies mentioned under this species in Bulletin Xo. 27. After the locusts have become 

 winged, a- many of them are at present, it is impracticable to attempt any of the 

 ordinary means of control, such as collecting with hopperdozers or driving them 

 into ditches, and so forth, and the only remedy is in the use of poisons. I do not 

 believe the bran-arsenic mash to be practicable over the large areas infested, in view 

 of the scattered condition of the locust. It will doubtless be of more or less avail. 



