General Considerations. 



213 



taining these prairies and preventing timber growth in 

 the more humid portions of the great prairie region. 

 But on Prof. Lapham's hypothesis there would naturally 

 be a connection in the past between fires and locusts; for 

 if without fires this whole prairie region had been tim- 

 bered, the locusts, which are essentially insects of the 

 plains and prairies, could never have become so prodig- 

 iously abundant and injurious. On such a hypothesis alone 

 can I see any possible connection between prairie fires and 

 locust invasions, and, however much truth there may be in 

 the hypothesis, the fact remains that there is no present 

 connection between the two phenomena. 



FASTING AND PRAYER. 



During great calamities, there has always been, and per- 

 haps always will be, on the part of people of any religion 

 whatsoever, a tendency to prayer and supplication, that 

 Divine aid may come to the relief of the afflicted. This ten- 

 dency is at no time more manifest than during locust visita- 

 tions. It was illustrated in the passage of a resolution at the 

 Omaha Conference, in 1876, praying the Supreme Being 

 to avert future injury, and it has found expression in reso- 

 lutions by religious sects and proclamations by State repre- 

 sentatives, who doubtless receive from their constituency, 

 during times of locust trouble, numerous petitions asking 

 for such action. 



The general interest awakened in the various endeavors 

 to aid the sufferers in Missouri, in 1875, was in no small 

 degree due to the active sympathy and the prompt attention 

 given to the subject by Governor C. H. Hardin. About 

 the middle of May he issued the following proclamation : 



Whereas, owing to the failures and losses of crops, much suffer- 

 ing has been endured by many of our people during the past few 

 months, and similar calamities are impending upon larger commu- 



