92 
FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 
VARIOUS IRRUPTIONS OF THE HATEFUL GRASSHOPPER IN BYGONE 
YEARS. 
Usually — as is also the case with the Migratory Locusts, (or, as we Americans should 
call them, “Migratory Grasshoppers,”) of the Old World and of Scripture—these 
Grasshopper invasions only take place at distant intervals of time. For example, 46 
years before the invasion of 1866, there was a swarm descended from the Rocky Moun¬ 
tains A. D. 1820 upon Western Missouri, doubtless stopping by the way in Kansas, though, 
as that State was then uninhabited save by the Red Indians, we have no record of the 
fact. The following paragraphs afford all the information that I have been able to 
glean on this very interesting subject. 
“We were informed by old residents of West Missouri and some of the Indians, that 
long ago, I think it was in the year 1820, there was just such a visitation of Grasshop¬ 
pers as is now afflicting us. They came in the autumn by millions, devouring every 
green thing, but too late to do much harm. They literally filled the earth with their 
eggs, and then died. The next spring they hatched out, did but little harm (/), and 
when full-fledged left for parts unknown. Other districts of country have been visited 
by them ; but, so far as I could learn, they have done but little harm after the first 
year.” — S. T. Kelsey, of Ottaioa, Kansas , in Prairie Farmer, June 15, 1867, p. 395. 
“ A Missouri Paper publishes a statement by an old settler, that great numbers of 
Grasshoppers appeared in September, 1820, doing much damage. The next spring they 
hatched out, destroying the cotton, flax, hemp , wheat and tobacco crops ; but the corn es¬ 
caped uninjured. About the middle of June they all disappeared, flying off in a south¬ 
east direction.” — Western Rural, 1867. 
Again: In the year 1856, or ten years before the invasion of 1866, and thirty-six 
years after the invasion just referred to, there descended from the Rocky Mountains 
another swarm, apparently of these same Hateful Grasshoppers, w r hich — perhaps 
owing to the more northerly direction of the prevalent winds — took a more northerly 
course than the invading army of 1866 did, and swooped down upon Minnesota. In 
the Practical Entomologist , (II., p. 3,) I have printed all that I have been able to collect 
on this subject. Whether the damage said by the writer of that article to have been 
done by these insects in Minnesota in the following year, 1857, w r as done by a fresh 
swarm descending from the Rocky Mountains, or by the individuals that hatched out 
from the eggs deposited in the earth by the swarm of 1856, is left uncertain. But I 
incline to believe in the latter alternative, because it seems improbable that, for two 
successive years, two successive swarms of Grasshoppers descending from the Rocky 
Mountains, should have been deflected so unusually far to the north of their customary 
line of flight as Anoka Co., in Minnesota. Besides, I see that W. E. Watt, of Min¬ 
nesota, says that “ the year after the Grasshoppers invaded Minnesota they did but 
little harm,” thus evidently implying that there were not two successive years of 
invasion. (N. Y. Sem. Tribune, Feb. 1, 1867.) 
Eight years afterwards, or A. D. 1864, there seems to have been another Grasshopper 
invasion of Minnesota, but only over a comparatively small region of country, and 
probably by some species distinct from the true Hateful Grasshopper. At all events, 
instead of appearing in September, they appeared in July; whereas, as Minnesota lies 
to the north of the districts usually invaded by the Hateful Grasshopper, we should 
expect that species to appear, if anything, rather later instead of considerably earlier 
than it alway appears in more southerly latitudes. To whatever species these Grass- 
