ACTING STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
93 
hoppers belonged, they seem to have laid eggs, which hatched out the next spring m 
the invaded district, as the following extracts show : 
. “ Minnesota , July 19, 1864. —A correspondent of the St. Paul Press speaks very 
alarmingly of the great Grasshopper raid now in progress down the Minnesota valley. 
They take every green thing in their course. We have no later news of the pests.” — 
Prairie Farmer, Aug. 6,1864. 
“ Fort Ridgely, {on the Minnesota River) Minnesota May 24,1865. Our bright pros¬ 
pects are blighted by the belief that the crops will be destroyed by the ravages of the 
Grasshoppers. In many localities, the ground is completely covered with these little 
insects, and as small as they necessarily are at this early day, they have begun their 
work of destruction. I have seen small fields entirely ruined by them. Last spring 
(summer ?) large armies of Grasshoppers started down from a point west and northwest 
of this, near the British Possessions, and in the autumn the frost found them in this 
section of country.” —■ Ibid ., June 3, 1865. 
Whether the following extract refers to the winged grasshoppers developed in 1865, 
from the eggs laid in the Minnesota Valley in the summer and autumn of 1864, or to a 
fresh swarm winging its way into the State in 1865, from the west and northwest, I am 
unable to decide; but I rather incline to the former alternative. Clearly, this entire 
Grasshopper-visitation must have been quite local; for, in the Prairie Farmer for 1865, 
may be found sundry “Records of the Season” from sundry parts of Minnesota, 
namely, Rice Co., Anoka Co., Ramsey Co., Goodhue Co., Blue Earth Co., Wabasha Co., 
Martin Co., Elgin and St. Paul, and dated from June 19th to October 7th, 1865, which 
say nothing whatever on this subject. 
a St. Peter, Minnesota, July , 1865. —The Grasshoppers have been flying over this 
place in countless myriads. The air, for a quarter of a mile high, was filled with them, 
and their speed was four to five miles an hour. In every town or farm through which 
they pass, they leave a strong guard, and the destruction of crops is sure to follow.” 
— Prairie Farmer, July 22, 1865. 
Lastly in 1857, as appears from the following extract, or one year after the first 
Minnesota invasion, and nine years before the great invasion of 1866, there was an 
irruption of some kind or other of Grasshoppers - perhaps our Hateful species, per¬ 
haps a different one - into the dominions of that High and Mighty Autocrat of a vast 
portion of the soil of Republican America, whom the vulgar herd oi Gentiles designate 
as Brigham Toung. ^ 
“ In 1857, the Grasshoppers ate everything green in Salt Lake Valley, and came near 
starving the Mormons out, since which time old Brigham keeps one year’s supplies on 
hand, knowing that they would not come the second year.” — Iowa Homestead, May 
8 1867 
Ten years afterwards, as is shown below, there was still another irruption of the same 
insect, but apparently in greatly diminished numbers, into the same territory. 
■« Great Salt Lake City, Utah, about July 81,1867. - The season has been very fine for 
farming, but on the last day of the month the Grasshoppers came by millions.” - 
Monthly Rep. Agr. Pep., 1867, p. 306. 
“ Wanship, Utah, July 31, 1867. —First appearance of a cloud of Grasshoppers over 
Wanship. They have destroyed one-half of the grain in Cache Valley, and all the fruit 
and a great amount of the grain in Pavis Co. They are swarming on the lower part 
of Weber River.” —Ibid. 
