108 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



ing Mr. Z. S. Ragan, of Independence, Mo., on the river 

 bluff. Each turned its course north, and down the bluff, 

 and, coming to a perpendicular ledge of rock twenty-five 

 or thirty feet high, passed over in a sheet, apparently six 

 or seven inches thick, at the same time causing a roaring 

 noise similar to that of a cataract of water. 



CONTRAST IN SUMMER AND FALL. 



After the insects have left, or by the end of July in the 

 latitude of St. Louis — earlier or later as we go south or 

 north — the ravaged country begins to wear a bright and 

 promising aspect, in strong contrast with the desolation 

 of a month before. In August, the contrast becomes still 

 more gratifying, and frequently there are grown the finest 

 crops of corn, Hungarian grass, prairie meadow, buckwheat 

 and vegetables of all kinds. In September, the change 

 which three months have wrought needs to be seen to be 

 appreciated. Root crops do well, and vegetables of all 

 kinds attain immense proportions, owing to the freedom 

 from weeds, and fertility resulting from the dung and 

 bodies of the dead locusts. 



NO EVIL WITHOUT SOME COMPENSATING GOOD. 



Not to mention the valuable experience and the quick- 

 ening influence that are generally gained in temporary 

 adversity, there are other ways in which good may grow 

 out of the locust troubles when they are severe. The 

 chinch bugs filled the air in the spring of 1875, throughout 

 the stricken district, and many persons feared that they 

 would destroy the corn crop even if the locusts left. I 

 then argued that there was no danger of such a result, 

 and that there was every reason to expect less injury from 

 this cause than usual, and with a wet summer, which might 

 be expected, an almost total annihilation of the pest. With 



