14 REPORTS OF OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS. 



the adjoining portions of Colorado and Wyoming it is impossible to 

 destroy these locusts by any artificial means known to me. Climatic 

 conditions alone must be depended upon for remedying the evil, since 

 the scope of country that would necessarily have to be covered is too 

 great to think of stamping ont the pest artificially. 



Rocky Mountain or Migratory Locust. — The Bocky Mountain or 

 migratory locust (Melanoplus spretus) has not been reported from any 

 point in excessive numbers during the past summer so far as I am 

 at present aware. Still it seems to have been sufficiently common over 

 portions of the subpermanent region to warrant our watching its move- 

 ments. On or about the 18th of August it was reported that grasshop- 

 pers in considerable numbers were seen in the air at West Point, this 

 State. Although it is not definitely known to just what species these 

 hoppers belonged, they were without doubt stragglers of the present 

 species, since at about the same time it occurred in moderate numbers 

 here at Lincoln and several neighboring places. In fact, it lias been 

 noticed by me both in the air and on the ground several times during 

 the summer, as it was also last summer. At no time, however, was it 

 observed in sufficient numbers to do perceptible injury to crops or 

 other vegetation, nor were the insects seen to deposit eggs. It did not 

 appear among the species that caused the observed and reported dam- 

 ages during the season. 



Injuries from "Native" Locusts. — Much injury was done during the 

 summer by different species of our native locusts that have been very 

 common at a number of localities in this and adjoining States. Here 

 at Lincoln we were obliged to fight them upon the experimental farm; 

 and from a field of oats of about 30 acres in extent at least 50 bushels 

 of winged locusts were captured with a hopper-dozer. They were 

 hatched upon waste laud adjoining the farm, and during the dry, hot 

 weather of August left the weeds and moved into the more inviting 

 fields. Numerous reports of similar injuries reached me from nearly 

 every portion of this and adjoining States where farming was carried 

 on extensively. The species concerned were the common ones usually 

 engaged in such depredations in this central region, viz. the red-legged, 

 the two-lined, the differential and the lesser migratory. In some local- 

 ities all, in others only one or two, of these were concerned in the 

 injuries. At different localities different ones were present in greatest 

 force. 



As stated above it is quite evident that if the losses occasioned by 

 these insects do not soon cease, something will have to be done to pre- 

 vent their further depredations. 



OTHER INSECTS. 



The Army Worm. — This year has been noted in Nebraska as one in 

 which the army worm (Leucania unvpuncta) was exceedingly abun- 

 dant and did much injury to crops in many of the western, northwest- 





