44 
Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys, extending from Tehama County on 
the north to Merced County on the south, is a low- growing', much- 
branched, pubescent, whitish plant, which Mrs. Brandegee informs me 
is Eremocarpns setigerus, sometimes known as u turkey-feed," owing to 
the fact that the turkeys are very fond of it. This plant was present 
in almost every locality that I visited, but I did not see any of the De- 
vastating Locusts feeding upon it, nor were the young of this locust 
ever found upon these plants, nor among them except when the latter 
grew in the vicinity of one or the other of the two plants referred to 
above. The " turkey-feed " plants evidently had no attraction for these 
locusts, which appear to prefer plants of a viscid or sticky nature. 
Of course it is possible that, in certain localities which I did not visit, 
the Devastating Locust may breed among other kinds of weeds than the 
two referred to above, but the fact that I found the young of this locust 
in almost every patch of these weeds of any considerable size, taken in 
connection with the other fact that I very seldom found the young 
locusts except in places where these weeds grew, makes it almost cer- 
tain that this locust chooses patches of these weeds in which to breed. 
CAUSE OF THE LOCUST RAVAGES. 
The region of country in this State that suffered most from the rav- 
ages of the Devastating Locust the present season is comprised in the 
three counties of Placer, Sacramento, and San Joaquin. In certain 
portions of these counties it was reported by several observers that the 
locusts came from the eastward in large swarms, not all at once, but in 
two or three separate swarms at intervals of about two weeks apart. 
From what has already been written it is almost certain that these 
large swarms hatched out in the open pasture lands among the foot- 
hills in the eastern part of Sacramento County, and also in the western 
portion ot Eldorado, Amador, and Calaveras counties, in places over- 
grown with tarweeds. 
The fact that these locusts do not appear in destructive numbers 
every season has led some persons to believe that these insects — like 
the misnamed Seventeen -year Locust of the East (Cicada septendecim 
Linn.) — pass several years in the larva state, but of course such is not 
at all the case; and if the facts were known it would evidently be found 
that these locusts migrate to the orchards and vineyards every year, 
but not always in sufficient numbers to attract attention. It appears 
to be a settled fact, however, that the years in which they have been 
present in destructive numbers in the region designated above were in 
seasons when there had been little or no late rains in the spring and 
when there had been heavy and long continued rains the previous 
spring. In other words, it appears that there must be a spring of long- 
continued and late rains, followed by one in which very little rain falls, 
in order to produce an unusual number of the locusts. These condi- 
tions existed in the years 1884 and 1885, and again in 1890 and 1891, 
