THE OUTBREAK OF 1907. 29 
Joaquin. Over this latter area the temperature for the same month 
was 12° F. above the normal, and within this latter area the pest 
first began its work of destruction. 
For reasons to be explained later in their proper place, the spread of 
the pest was much more rapid to the north and northeast from north- 
central Texas than it was in the opposite direction. In March the 
pest was found generally present about San Antonio, Kerrville, 
Menardville, and New Braunfels, of that State, but because of the 
small acreage of grain grown in that section the damage was not 
serious. Indeed, the same may be said of the country west of a line 
drawn from western Wilbarger County to the Brazos Kiver at Round 
Timber, Baylor County, and west of the Brazos to and except about 
Waco. East and north of this the damage ranged from serious to 
total ruin. 
As early as March 6 it was also reported to the bureau as destroying 
wheat in the vicinity of Summers, northwestern Arkansas. This 
was probably due to local causes, uninfluenced by invasions of 
swarms of winged viviparous females that were being continually 
swept from off the more disastrously affected country to the southwest 
and drifting toward the northeast. Mr. C. N. Ainslie was instructed 
to proceed from Washington, D. C, to this part of the country, where 
he arrived on March 16. On March 15 the Texas Grain Dealers' 
Association, through its secretary, Mr. H. B. Dorsey, made an appeal 
to the chief of this bureau for aid in devising means for destroying 
the pest and curtailing or preventing its ravages. In response to 
this appeal the junior author was dispatched to Fort Worth, Tex., 
arriving there on March 26. The situation here was found to be most 
serious. Hundreds of acres of both wheat and oats had been wiped 
out of existence; in many cases fields were observed where it was 
impossible to find a living plant, and as a rule numbers of such fields 
were being plowed and prepared for other crops. Plate I, figure 1, 
shows a field entirely destroyed. The weather at this time was hot 
and dry and Toxoptera appeared to have been entirely overcome by 
its natural enemies. 
On March 25, 1907, a telegram was received from the Roosevelt 
Grain Elevator Co., of Hobart, Okla., reporting serious attacks from 
Toxoptera and appealing to the Secretary of xlgriculture for assist- 
ance. The junior author was at once instructed to proceed to Hobart, 
where he arrived April 1, remaining until April 5. This point ap- 
peared to be on the western border of serious injuries by the pest, and 
the situation was therefore not so grave as in Texas. From the 
junior author's observations it appeared that much of the damage 
that was being done was caused by insects which had drifted into the 
fields and not from individuals originating therein. This was evi- 
denced by the fact that in wheat fields where a part had been sown 
