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places occurring in great abundance on the Wild Sunflower so common 
on these plains, and the question arose whether this was not its natural 
food plant and its attacks on sorghum incidental. 
The day following I spent the forenoon with Dr. Sabin, who kindly 
furnished a horse and cart and accompanied me in examining a num- 
ber of farms within 5 miles of Garden City, where alfalfa fields and 
orchards were injured. I met and talked with a number of farmers who 
had suffered from grasshopper depredations, and the information re- 
ceived from them with what I gained by personal observation satisfied 
me that losses could be avoided by proper measures. 
I learned that the same injuries extended farther west along the river 
where alfalfa was grown, and I proceeded from Garden City to Lakin, 
observing on the way that all alfalfa fields showed presence of grass- 
hoppers, but that in some cases the bloom was still free from serious 
injury or destroyed only in patches. At Lakin I learned that injury 
had been serious, especially on the place of Mr. Longstreth, some two 
miles from town. Some fields near the river and occupying low land 
were noticed in full bloom and showing little damage, but still grass- 
hoppers could be found in abundance by closer inspection of the fields. 
Mr. Longstreth's son, being in town, drove me out to his father's farm, 
and accompanied me on a tour through his extensive orchard of 10 acres, 
his oat field and alfalfa fields, in all of which the damage had been seri- 
ous. Many of the trees in the orchard were entirely stripped of leaves, 
and in some cases the bark had been eaten from the limbs. The alfalfa 
presented the same appearance as observed in other fields. I found 
here a great many dead grasshoppers, whose empty shells attested the 
activity of Tachinse. 
I was told by Mr. Longstreth that skunks were amongst the most 
active enemies of the grasshoppers, and he believed played an important 
part in reducing them. He had even seen one up in an apple tree catch- 
ing hoppers on the limbs. 
I learned at Lakin that alfalfa was also grown in the next county 
west, at Syracuse, and that damage was also reported there, but on 
reaching the place found the injury slight as compared with the other 
places visited. In fact, aside from one farm on which some damage to 
alfalfa and orchard had occurred I could learn of no loss. Caloptenas 
differentialis I found in some numbers, and there is little doubt that 
unless some effort is made this fall and next spring to destroy eggs and 
young they will multiply as in other localities, and probably by next 
season prove as destructive as in them. 
As this point carried me into the westernmost row of counties in the 
State, and there was no report of damage farther on, I determined to 
cross northward to the Missouri Pacific Eoad, in order to follow up some 
rumors regarding damage from grasshoppers at some points intervening, 
and which, from the descriptions given, seemed possibly to be due to 
Dissosteira longipennis. No point where serious loss occurred was found, 
however, and this species occurred but sparingly at points between 
