41 



Mr. Webster considered that it was the upheavals, the sudden and 

 frequent changes, that cause the trouble for the economic worker. 

 The systematist can not properly carry on his investigations without 

 a knowledge of the relation of one species to another, and such work 

 comes within the province of the morphologist. Many species can 

 not be properly and accurately determined without a knowledge of 

 the larval stages, so that the life history work is very important and 

 should not be overlooked. 



Mr. Fletcher believed that the best accepted check lists should be 

 used in toto by everyone until better ones took their places, and that 

 the good work done by the systematist would be accepted by the 

 economic worker in time as check lists became more and more perfect. 

 He cited the work of the ornithologists, who, with the small number 

 of species they had to consider, were able to accept a single name 

 without citing an author. This was impossible with the vastly larger 

 number of species of insects. Differences in names did not matter so 

 much if writers would always cite the authors Avhen using a scientific 

 name. 



Mr. Cooley next presented a paper, which is as follows : 



NOTES ON A GRASSHOPPER OUTBREAK IN MONTANA. 



By R. A. Cooley, Bozeman, Mont. 



During the past three years grasshoppers and dry weather have 

 been responsible for extensive losses in Montana. These losses have 

 fallen, for the most part, on those citizens interested in the grazing of 

 cattle, sheep, and horses on the fenced and open ranges. Less exten- 

 sive, though serious, damage has been done in the agricultural valleys, 

 where grain and alfalfa were in some cases completely destroyed. 

 The trouble began three years ago in tAvo localities fully 150 miles 

 apart — one in Carbon County, the other in Rosebud County. In these 

 localities the insects have been steadily multiplying during the three 

 years, and each locality has increased year \>y year until, during the 

 past season (1903), the advancing border lines met in the vicinity of 

 Billings, thus making one infested tract fully 150 miles in length and 

 of varj'ing width. 



The affected region may be roughly outlined by stating that it 

 embraces all that part of Montana drained by the Yellowstone River 

 between Miles City and Bigtimber, including not only the valley of 

 the Yellowstone, but the valleys of the side streams that come in from 

 the south and most of the cross countries between the tributaries. 



So completely has the grass of the range been taken in some parts 

 of this region that the ranchers have been obliged to sell their stock 

 at a sacrifice or remove it to distant ranges. Many thousands of ani- 

 mals have gone north and south, and are now being fed on ranges 



