"their progress was readily traced from the north and west, and their origin was undoubtedly Dakota and Nebraska, where my friend O. H. St. John observed them in abundance in the larva state in May. He also noticed them at or near Sioux City, and at other points on the Iowa side of the Missouri River."

The facts in regard to the direction from which the hordes of 1874 came is also corroborative of the opinion advanced. And, finally, a fact which at first appears to stand opposed to this opinion, when carefully considered, really goes to strengthen it, if applicable to the general halt. The evidence in regard to the arrival of the hordes of 1866 in Kansas rather tends to show that they came from the west, and, in some intances, from the southwest. As it is shown by equally strong evidence that they did not come from the inhabited portions of Eastern Colorado, they must have come from the intermediate Plains, and if they were from the mountains they must have passed down first, then have changed their course and returned, while another portion passed on to Texas, which is a far more violent presumption than that which I have given, which is, that they were hatched on the Plains as the successors of those which left the northwest in 1864. But where such change of course occurs in the interior of the settled portions, it may be merely a short flight from a neighboring section after their first halt, and argues nothing then; but the evidence in this case appears to apply to their general direction, and not to a merely local movement.

I have dwelt somewhat at length upon this point, because I have long had doubt in regard to the correctness of the idea that all swarms which invade these border States sweep down from their distant hatchinggrounds in a single generation, as if they knew, by a kind of new and recently obtained instinct, rich fields of corn were to be found in Kansas, Nebraska, and Minnesota. I had hoped the facts in regard to the recent invasion would settle this question; but as these have yet to be gathered, except a few which correspond to those of 1867, and agree with the view I have advanced, we must for the present rely on those already known in reference to past incursions.

It is certainly strange that they should always pass over this belt of two or three hundred miles, on which herds of buffalo have flourished for ages, without making a halt. Where do the numerous hordes go which leave the mountains, but never reach the settlements on the east side? Most undoubtedly, they spend their force upon the Plains; probably finding sufficient nourishment in the grasses of this area, they remain, diminishing year after year in numbers or gradually losing their migratory disposition.

Let us now consider for a moment the possibility of fighting these hordes from the fields after their arrival, or of destroying them by direct means and mechanical appliances. In the first place, it is impossible to tell just when they are coming and when they will alight, so that even were the national military forces detailed for the purpose in ques

tion, they might be waiting in Minnesota for the coming storm, while it descended on the fields of Kansas; or, if scattered, their effectiveness would be destroyed. But suppose that by properly arranged telegraph lines notice should be given from the western side of the plains that a horde was moving, and that, from the direction of the wind, &c., it might be expected along a certain line, and that the Army should be waiting at the proper point, how much is it possible a corn-field of 160 acres would be worth after a company of unwilling soldiers had fought grasshoppers over it for two days? Writers and others in attempting to show or illustrate what may be done in this country by what is done in other countries too often forget the vast difference in the rights of individuals in the two. They forget that the soldier here is a man and a citizen, and not a mere machine, and while always willing voluntarily to assist in time of distress and calamity, without debating whether there is any obligation to do so, when this is made a requirement, it is a very different thing with him. The result would therefore, beyond all doubt, prove wholly unsatisfactory.

The want of the time and place of the arrival of these hordes are very material difficulties to commence with. But let us suppose all the farmers of our border States were thoroughly armed and equipped with all the machinery, nostrums, and patent appliances American ingenuity and entomological science could devise. What could they do in the way of contending with one of those immense swarms which sweep down upon them in such countless myriads?

As a large portion of the readers of this have never witnessed the movements of one of these swarms, and in order to illustrate in as forcible a manner as possible the difficulties under which our border farmers labor at such times, I ask them to take their stand with me, in imagination, on one of those beautiful grassy hillocks everywhere met with in Kansas, Nebraska, Dakota, and Southwestern Minnesota. First, look over the spreading valleys outlined with graceful curves, and sweeping downwards with scarcely perceptible slope towards the south, while beyond in every direction the rolling prairies stretch out as far as the eye can reach, while somewhat regularly over their surfaces (consequent upon the alternate section land-grants) like little islands in the sea are seen the farms. Compare the amount of occupied and actually cultivated land with the broad surrounding expanse of unoccupied land. Let the reader now extend his imagination a little farther. It is a beautiful morning, about the first of August; not even a fleecy cloud specks the sky, although a refreshing breeze is sweeping down from the northwest; the fields of corn in sight reflect the silvery beams from seas of waving leaves, while their tasseled heads gently bow before the breeze. All at once, about ten o'clock, a dark shadow is seen moving rapidly over the plains from the northwest; the rays of the sun are suddenly cut off, and the entire scene appears as though beneath some vast canopy which has been overspread. But in a moment the mystery is ex

plained; for gazing upwards we behold the heavens filled with broad, living, silvery snowflakes, and then a shower thick as rain, but dropping like pebbles, striking our hats, hands, and upturned faces and the ground around with a sudden and peculiar thud. Grasshoppers, grasshoppers by the million! is the exclamation which explains the mystery. Onward they come a dark continuous cloud

Of congregated myriads numberless,
The rushing of whose wings is as the sound

Of a broad river headlong in its course

Plunged from a mountain summit, or the roar

Of a wild ocean in the autumn storm,

Shattering its billows on a shore of rocks.

We watch the myriads of restless workers for a few hours, and ere the sun has set see the corn stripped of its green leaves, and the beautiful green covering of the scene changed to an almost barren waste.

It is true this is given as an imaginary sketch, but those who have beheld the arrival of these hordes will scarcely consider it greatly exag gerated or far from correct.

Numerous letters and statements from eye-witnesses of the late invasion might be given which would show that the picture I have given is not overdrawn. In one of the letters in Professor Riley's Report for 1875 I find the following statement, which shows the rapidity with which these devourers work :-" They appeared on Sunday, July 26, at about 6 o'clock p. m. They were so thick in the air that they appeared like a heavy snow-storm; those high in the air forming apparently light, fleecy clouds, while those dropping to the earth resembled flakes of falling snow. Next morning, Monday, the 27th, at daylight, the country was literally covered with grasshoppers. Soon after sunrise they collected on the growing crops, young trees, etc., and commenced eating, and before night had eaten the leaves from almost every green thing." A resident of Nebraska, whose place I had visited before the invasion, describing their appearance, stated that they arrived about 10 a. m., darkening the sky with their numbers; that by 3 p. m. the corn-the chief crop of that section-was completely stripped of its blades.

Now what can the farmer do with the one or two assistants of his family, aided by all the appliances they could operate, in preserving a field of eighty or a hundred acres of corn from such an attack as this; especially when we remember that as soon as it is cleared of one set of these devourers, another stands ready to pour in upon it from the surrounding prairies? Beside, there can be no combination of forces, for at such times all are similarly situated, and delay is fatal. So far, man appears to be powerless at such times, as with the force the pioneer farmers of these border States usually have at command but little progress could be made towards harvesting their crops after the swarms have appeared, and even if this were possible, which is seldom the case, it is usually valueless except as fodder; but even this would be worth the trouble, as it would assist in preserving the stock.

The farmer on such occasions usually sits down in blank despair, and in gloomy silence beholds the work of destruction; nor can we wonder at it when we consider the suddenness and magnitude of the attack. It is therefore certain that the only means of counteracting these inroads must be preventive; and therefore it may well be asked, What are they, and are any of them feasible?

1st. It would certainly be in vain for even the national government to attempt to exterminate these insects by destroying their eggs in the various hatching-grounds which extend from British America to Colorado.

2d. If the swarms which reach the border States come from a limited area along the east flank of the mountains, the destruction of the eggs by any temporary means, even if possible, would be of comparatively little value, as the hordes sweeping down from the mountain regions would soon replace them. Irrigation, so far as I can see, is the only permanent means, and this, I am satisfied, from a careful study of the drainage of these regions, is possible only in the area named, and in a portion of that section of the Upper Missouri west of the Judith Mountains.

3d. Signal-stations in these regions connected by telegraph lines with the section they visit might possibly give warning in time to gather such crops as would be of value, but these lines would have to be so arranged as to trace the usual line of march of these insects. What effect firing the prairies on their approach would have I am unable to say, but it is possible this might cause them to move on, as was the case in some instances mentioned in the accounts of their invasions recorded. 4th. Although I have but little faith in Indian industry, yet it may be that a premium offered for eggs and grasshoppers would induce Indians to gather them in the regions over which they roam; and, as the government undertakes to feed these people, it might be well enough to make the trial, and thus perhaps beget in the younger Indians some faint idea of industry and its results. If the experiment should prove successful it would be some help, be it ever so small, towards staying the ravages of these locust pests, and it would be simply another mods of paying the Indian, and, if rightly planned, no additional expense to the government.

As regards the resulting brood, the farmer does not appear to be so helpless as he does with the incoming hordes. The former coming gradually, and presenting various points of attack, does not fill him with terror, as do the suddenness and magnitude of the attack in the latter case. In an article of mine, recently published in the Prairie Farmer, I stated that the farmers, after a few years' experience with these insects, generally learn all the means of local defense possible; and, as a gen eral rule, the entomologist must learn these, not from any scientific knowledge of the insect, but from the practical experiments made by

the farmer. All modes of attack and defense which depend in any way upon the knowledge of the habits of the insect which are not patent to the unscientific eye, the entomologist is expected to perceive sooner than those who are not entomologists.

Although the farmer does not feel himself so helpless before the hatching brood as he does before the migratory hordes, still that he does not feel able to entirely control them, even after long experience, is shown by the following extracts from letter sent me this season by a Nebraska farmer, who has some practical experience in the matter:-"I am a hard working farmer, forty-six years old; came to Nebraska in 1855; have a good farm and seven children, and would be getting along very well if the grasshoppers would let me alone. They are getting worse and we cannot stand it much longer. I only got five bushels of corn to the acre last year, yet I had to help others; and now we have millions ofhoppers' again. Plowing, rolling and burning does but little good. Wise men say there is a parasite killing them. Well, we know something of the hoppers' and the parasite; it never kills many of them, nor any of them until they are nearly grown. But the birds eat millions of them before they are larger than a grain of wheat. The small grasshoppers are too quick for domestic fowls, but they get some of them when they are small and many of the larger ones. I think the birds have eaten half of those hatched on my farm, but they are getting too large for them (date, June 2, 1875). The farmers will all tell you the birds eat them, but they have killed many of the birds."

First, the destruction of the eggs deposited.-In thickly settled countries, where labor is cheap, and there are large landed estates, as France and Italy, it may be possible to do this somewhat effectually, and it will effect something even in our border States; but when the invasion is general, and the eggs are deposited over a large area, what can the farmers do towards destroying them, not only on the farms, but on the much larger area surrounding them?

The following, from a French newspaper in 1841, will give some idea of the work of collecting grasshoppers in Southern Europe :-"Such immense quantities of grasshoppers have appeared this year in Spain that they threaten in some places to entirely destroy the crops. At Danriel, in the province of Cuidad-Real, three hundred persons are constantly employed to collect these destructive insects, and though they destroy seventy or eighty sacks every day, they do not appear to diminish." This shows the number employed on a limited area. From whence will come a corresponding force for the broad area of our border States?

As a practical test, let us take a county in Kansas, say Rice County, which has an area of 720 square miles, and a population, according to the last report of the Kansas Board of Agriculture, of 2,396, and a voting population of 260 or 275. Suppose eggs to have been deposited