10 
About the middle of June reports of damage by grasshoppers or 
locusts began to make their appearance in the papers of the country at 
large, and especially were such reports of frequent occurrence and of 
an alarming nature in the region where the Eocky Mountain locust rav- 
aged the country some years ago. Nor were these reports purely rumor, 
for it was definitely known to entomologists and others that numbers of 
these insects had hatched in various parts of the country and were at 
this time devouring the vegetation at an alarming rate. The past few 
years had also been very favorable to their increase, while considerable in- 
jury to crops had actually been done by these insects during last year. In 
Colorado railroad trains had been stopped by the insects which gathered 
upon the rails and were crushed by the heavy wheels of the locomotives. 
.From Idaho and California came reports of grasshopper swarms, and in 
portions of Minnesota and North Dakota these insects were known to 
occur in numbers too great for the settlers to be troubled with visions 
of overflowing granaries. Accordingly, quite early in July the Secre- 
tary of Agriculture decided upon a general tour of inspection by spe- 
cialists in insect study, who were to work under the direction of Prof. C. 
Y. Eiley, the United States Entomologist. Several field agents located 
in different parts of the Union were immediately instructed to examine 
into the reports emanating from adjacent localities, and to report the 
results of such investigations promptly. 
Having been more or less constantly engaged in the special study of 
this particular group of insects for the past ten or eleven years, the 
writer was instructed to make a general tour of inspection over the re- 
gion known as the range of the Rocky Mountain or Migratory Locust. 
During the time occupied in carrying out these instructions portions of 
Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Manitoba, 
Idaho, and Utah were traversed. The following reports will give some 
idea of the results of these various regions visited : 
THE LOCUST PEST IN COLORADO. 
The first locality which I visited for the purpose of studying these 
destructive locusts was located in eastern Colorado upon the plains in 
the vicinity of the town of Akron, on the line of the Burlington and 
Missouri River Railroad. Here it was found that a large, long-winged 
locust, which is known scientifically by the name of Dissosteira longi- 
pennis Thos., was the culprit, and that it was really destroying the 
grasses on the prairies over an area of fully 400 square miles of terri- 
tory. A little investigation showed it to be the same species that was 
present farther to the southward, and that had been the cause of the 
newspaper reports which filled the columns of the dailies at the time. 
By driving northward from Akron across the country to the Platte 
River, other small detached swarms of the same locust were encoun- 
tered, and judging from such reports as were obtainable at Sterling, 
