37 
attacked by the locusts, although rarely in tin* case of young trees not 
only the leaves but also the ends of the green branches were devoured 
by thein. I saw a row of fig trees almost surrounding an orchard of 
deciduous fruit trees, and while the latter had been nearly defoliated 
by the locusts the fig trees were almost untouched. It was also re 
ported to me that the locusts would not attack the figs upon the trees. 
The above-mentioned orchard and vineyard were nearly surrounded 
by wheat fields and pastures, while but a few miles east of them and 
separated by a range of wooded hills is a number of small vineyards 
and orchards that had not been touched by the locusts. These latter 
vineyards and orchards were surrounded on all sides by woods. Thus 
it appeared that orchards and vineyards located in the vicinity of grain 
fields suffered more from the attack of the Devastating Locusts than did 
those situated in the woods; and this observation was frequently veri- 
fied during the remainder of my investigations into this subject. There 
appears to be something about a grain field that is very attractive to 
the locusts while they are on the wing high in the air; it may be the 
bright glistening of the sun upon the yellow straw that attracts their 
eyes. At one place in San Joaquin County the road had been covered 
with straw for a distance of several hundred yards, and in driving over 
this in the middle of the day I noticed that hundreds of the Devastating 
Locust were resting upon the straw, but none, or only a very few were 
to be found upon the bare ground near it. I was informed by several 
persons who had witnessed the coming of these locusts that the large 
swarms would always alight in a grain field, and from this point they 
spread in all directions to the adjacent orchards and vineyards. My own 
observations confirmed this fact, since in nearly every instance the trees 
around the edges of an orchard had been injured to a greater extent by 
the locusts than had those in the more central portion. In several in- 
stances I saw small orchards which were located only a few yards from 
the breeding grounds of the Devastating Locust, but separated from 
them by trees and small bushes, and yet the trees in such orchards had 
scarcely been attacked by the locusts, while orchards located 30 miles 
distant, but surrounded by wheat fields, had been almost completely 
defoliated by locusts which had evidently hatched out in the breeding 
grounds referred to. 
From Folsom I returned to Sacramento and interviewed Hon. Edw in 
F. Smith, the Secretary of the California State Agricultural Society, 
and from him I learned that the locusts were very numerous in certain 
portions of San Joaquin County. I therefore proceeded at once to 
Lodi, where I met Dr. E. Armstrong, a prominent orchardist of that 
region, who gave me a great deal of information upon this subject, and 
also showed me over that portion of San Joaquin County that had suf- 
fered most from the attacks of the locusts. Here the conditions were 
practically the same as I had found them existing in Sacramento 
County. The orchards which had suffered most were surrounded by 
