53 
THE AMOUNT OF INJURY. 
The great loss this year has resulted from the destruction of the seed 
crop. In many fields this has been a total failure, and the loss may be 
considered as covering thousands of acres and involving many thou- 
sands of dollars. One man who had something over 100 acres in alfalfa 
considered that his loss amounted to about $2,000. While he expected 
to cut and use the crop for hay, the damage had been such that the hay 
would be little better than after the seed crop had been secured, and 
he reckoned the full loss of the seed crop forthe season, In some cases 
farmers were cutting for hay when they had intended to allow the crop 
to go to seed, and in this way were reducing the amount of their loss 
by the value of the crop of hay cut early over what the hay would be 
worth after maturing seed, the latter, of course, being much less valua- 
ble than the hay cut before seed matures. In many cases the farmers 
had been depending largely upon the crop of seed to help them out of 
debt, and the loss from the grasshopper injury falls heavily upon them. 
THE SPECIES DOING THE DAMAGE. 
The Differential Locust is, I think, chargeable with fully nine-tenths 
of the destruction, both in alfalfa and orchards, and the reasons for its 
increase in this section seem to me quite evident. The irrigated fields 
of alfalfa furnisb it with favorite food in abundance throughout the 
year, and have given it an opportunity to multiply rapidly without ex- 
hausting its food supply. 
The ditches which traverse the fields and possibly parts of the fields 
themselves furnish a most excellent location for the deposition of eggs, 
the ground being compact and for the most part undisturbed through- 
out the year. That the eggs are deposited in or alongside the ditches 
is indicated by several facts, though at the time of my visit the locusts, 
while pairing, were none of them ovipositing. In the first place, the 
greatest damage has occurred in strips on eitherside of the ditches, and 
only in the worst fields extends over the entire field; second, at the 
time of my visit the pairing individuals were quite evidently collecting 
more particularly in these locations; third, the testimony of those who 
seemed to have observed most closely agreed in placing the greatest 
number of young hoppers in spring along the borders of the ditches, a 
point which is clearly supported by the injured strips so plainly to be 
seen. Noone whom I questioned had seen the locusts in the act of 
Ovipositing. 
The ditches contain no water during a large part of the year, and in 
fall the compact bottom, which doubtless affords more moisture than 
_the fields in general, would seem an excellent place for the deposition 
of eggs, as well as the banks on either side. Judging by the habits of 
these and allied species in other locations it would be hard to conceive 
@ more favorable place for the deposition of eggs, and it seems to me 
