NEW DEFINITION OF TEMPORARY REGION. 2T 
ever be discovered, the locusts can never prevent the settlement of this 
section, or infactof any other portion of the United States. This part of the 
problem, at least, is undoubtedly solved. That invading swarms will 
again come down on these border States and Territories is not doubted; 
that almost every year, in fact, a limited swarm drops down here and 
there, we know to be true ; and that some loss is occasioned to some few 
farmers here and there is also true ; but it is no more than occurs in 
almost every part of the Union. Every year limited areas in every State 
suffer from some kind of insects ; in one it is the locust, in another the 
potato-beetle, in another the cotton- worm, in another the cabbage- 
worm, «Scc. We should not be surprised, if the coming spring and sum- 
mer are dry, to see a limited invasion of the temporary region this year. 
We have no sufficient data on which to base a decided opinion, nor do 
we feel warranted in saying that even the probabilities lean in that 
direction, but there are a few slight indications, chiefly meteorological, 
which are sufficient to prevent us from asserting that there is no danger 
of an invasion the coming summer. 
As heretofore stated, facts gathered during the last two years have 
forced upon us the conclusion that the northeast portion of Nebraska 
and the eastern part of Dakota should not be classed in the temporary 
region in the same sense as Western Iowa, Southern Nebraska, Kansas, 
and the regions southward ; but that they really belong to what may 
truly be termed the subpermanent region. Even the extreme western 
part of Minnesota appears to fall into the same category. In this region 
the species appears to be able to maintain its existence for a longer time 
than in the southern section, though perhaps the former region is no 
more subject to the invasions of the great hordes than the latter. The 
area to which this statement appears to be particularly applicable 
is that which lies around the southern and western side of the Co- 
teau of the Prairies. The elevated plateau is perhaps one cause of this. 
But the data we have obtained are not sufficient to enable us to decide 
this point with certainty. * 
If the proposition of the Commissioner of Agriculture to cover this 
with trees could be carried out, it would most certainly have an ameli- 
orating effect; but without any means of irrigating them, we have some 
doubt as to whether they could be made to live and grow. If any 
species can be found that will live without irrigation, the plan is most 
certainly a good one and would justify the government in undertaking 
it. A belt of timber along the Niobrara, which, within historic times, 
was a wooded stream, would also be beneficial to a limited extent. But 
to materially modify the locust injuries by this means would require 
a broad forest belt of a hundred miles or more in width, stretching 
from Big Sioux to the vicinity of the Black Hills. If the locusts sweep 
over mountains covered with forests, as we know is a fact often wit- 
nessed in Colorado, a narrow belt of timber along the line of their march 
* Note. — Recent investigations strongly confirm this opinion. 
