APPENDIX I. NEBRASKA DATA, 1877. 
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Question 9. June 5, 1875. — A neighbor reports that a few came down June 6, 1877. 
Question 10. From June 12 to 20. 
Question 12. Wheat, oats, corn, and garden vegetables. 
Question 13. I know of no effectual protection. 
Question 14. Potatoes, pease, and sorghum. 
Question 15. 1 have no knowledge of any course except toward food. 
Question lb\ Firing prairies and straw piles, and some machinery, have been tried. 
As eggs are rarely deposited on the prairie sod, burning it is useless, except as it bor- 
ders cultivated grounds, where it may catch some who have traveled from the bare 
fields to the bordering grass for food. 
Question 17. None. 
Question 18. Of machinery, three or four have been used, but, as far as I can learn, 
with no very desirable effect. 
Question 19. We were heavily visited in 1876. 
Question 21. 1857, 1858, 1861, 1864, 1867, 1868, 1869, 1873, and 1875. 
Domestic fowls, so far as garden lots, home lots, &c, are concerned, are of much 
value ; if in sufficient numbers but few eggs or locusts -will escape them. 
With regard to birds, my residence is largely surrounded by shrubbery and trees, 
which draw large numbers and varieties of birds. I have closely watched them for 
years, and, although they may be of service against the locusts, I cannot testify to 
much in their favor. I protect them from all enemies as far as possible, but it is a 
very rare case to see any one of them in evident pursuit of the young locust. 
Question 23. I know nothing. I havo reports that different persons saw a few last 
fall, but I doubt the fact. 
Question 24. Cabbage, turnips, and wheat — the young plants — seem to be univers- 
ally a favorite food, but circumstances or tastes seem to vary in most other plants. 
In one field certain plants are entirely devoured and others close at hand untouched, 
while in others it is exactly the reverse. My neighbor on an adjoining lot had his 
lettuce and pease entirely destroyed, while his other plants were untouched. In mine 
nearly all are gone but my lettuce and pease, which are unharmed. Many like cases 
have come to my knowledge, both with the young and the old. 
I know nothing of any marching or traveling except as they march across a field of 
grain or other food and leave a bare plain behind them. When on the wing I am in- 
clined to think they fly all night. 
Their movement must be regulated largely by the wind they are on, and this they 
out-travel, according to my observation, at least one-half. 
Yesterday, July 22, about noon, I noticed they were passing over in very large num- 
bers ; a light southerly wind bore them northward. I gave my entire attention to 
them, and watched them, assisted with a spy-glass. The swarm was of great depth, 
at least one-fourth mile ; how wide I had no means of determining — through some 
peculiarity of the atmosphere, probably aided by a lower flight than usual. (The 
barometer indicated from 30.019 to 30.062 inches pressure.) I kept them in view till 
after 7 p. ni. with no perceptible diminution of numbers. Careful observation in the 
evening and again this morning shows not a single one on the ground. 
At 8-£ a. m. this morning I succeeded in getting sight of them again overhead, and 
as the sun rose higher developed numbers about the same as yesterday. (Query : Was 
the line continuous through the night ?) 
For several years I have observed the locust and have seen no exception to the gen- 
eral rule that it is very sluggish in the cool of the morning, i. e., on the earth. It 
does not leave its perch, roost, or bed, voluntarily until the air is warmed up from 8 
to 10 a. m. Supposing this swarm had descended somewhere, it must have literally 
more than covered the ground. Yet, in violation of their general habit of late rising 
here, they are at 8| a. m. in regular flight overhead. The thermometer at 9 p. m. (last 
night) was at 68°, at 7 a. m. this morning 64°. A minimum thermometer fell during 
the night to 55°, altogether too cool for them to have risen from the earth to recom- 
mence their flight this morning. But, on tbe other side, if cold renders the locust 
sluggish, how does it succeed in keeping on its way in the upper strata of air, which 
must be much colder than on the earth ? Does its action evolve sufficient heat to 
enable it to keep up its flight? 
When met by opposing winds, I have seen them come down in large numbers, 
but by common consent to descend en masse; I have no knowledge of it. I see no way 
to avoid the conclusion that they fly all night. 
A. L. CHILD. X. D. 
Grand Island, Hall County, May 12, 1877. 
Question 4. April 13 and 14, 1877, the eggs were most numerously hatching on my 
farm (bottom land), while I learn that on higher and dryer locations they hatched in 
great numbers about one week earlier. 
Question 5. Probably one-fourth of the eggs originally deposited failed to hatch 
the present year. I frequently found a smallish white maggot occupying the egg- 
