The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-06-04

nois, really need them. In brief, .he
facts are these
1. The destroying insect is not grass
hopper, but the young OF the Rocky
Mountain locust (Acridiuna spretles),
Matched this spring from eggs deposited
during the great invasion last fall.
2. These insects have appeared in the
narrow belt already described, but will
not get wings, nor be able to travel much
beyond it, before the latter part OF June.
3. The young locust, Matched in this
climate, is neither az active nor voracious
as the original stock, cannot reproduce
itself, has already begun to die off in
great numbers, and can still less endure
the more uncongenial climate farther
eastward.
4. No injury of consequence is to be
unprecedented at any point farther east
than Sedalia or Des Moines, and even
west OF that line the damage will be
much less than ii was in the same local-
ties last year.
These statements are warranted not
only 10y past experience but by the inves-
legations of men of science. Prof. G. V.
Riley, the State Etomologist, whose
Investigations of this insect, like all his
work, is a marvel of careful research,
predicted years ago that no serious injury
would ever be done by this locust farther
east than II degrees west of Washington.
His prediction was remarkably verified
last year, when not single county lying
east of that line was overrun, and the
statements of his report for last year, re-
speeding the danger to be apprehen ded
this spring, have thus far been sust aimed
by all the facts.
The Rocky Mountain locust should not
be confounded with the grasshopper, the
ordinary locust, the small migratory To-
Gust of New England, nor the so-called
thirteen-year locust" 1t breeds in the
high and dry plateaus and valleys of
Montana, Wyoming and Colorado, but
at intervals of apparently from seven to
ten years, comes down in vast swarms,
riding on the wind, to feast on the grain
of the West, to deposit eggs, and to
perish. Its fight, directed by the pre-
vailing winds from the mountains, is
enthusiastically; its march, when it de-
vastates the country, is in the same direc-
ton; and even its young, before they get
wings, hop southeastward also. But,
being adapted by nature TO high and
almost rainless region, its swift journey
of 500 miles ends, first in O feast, but
speedily in sure destruction. Millions
perish before the eastward limit is reach
ed; millions more, as they push forward,
become exhausted, and the invasion of
1866 and that of 1874 terminated in al
most precisely the same counties. Diff
ferent conditions of air, temperature,
and quantity Of RAINFALL not as yet fully
ascertained, fix limit beyond which no
serious ravages from this insect have
ever occurred or are to be apprehended.
For the insect of the second genera
ton, Matched in an unnatural climate, is
from the first an unhealthy, compare
lively weak, and very perishable creature.
In the dry regions of the higher eleva-
tons, where scarcely twelve inches of
rain fall III year, and the ground is
rarely if ever saturated, the eggs, depcs-
tied in glutinous pods, 80 to 100 in each,
about an inch beneath the surface, hatch
out an insect capable of flying 500 miles,
devastating enormously, and producing
many eggs. But in our lower regions,
where the rainfall is from thirty to forty
five inches, and where the spring opens
even later than in the mountains, millions
of eggs are destroyed, and millions more
of the young when first Matched, and
those which live long enough TO do mis-.
chief cannot reproduce themselves, and
are speedily destroyed by the climate and
by parasites. Predictions TO this effect,
made last year by Prof. Riley, already
begin to be verified.
The eggs hatch earlier in the warmer
climate. 1t is, therefore, possible that
some damage may yet be done in coun-
ties in Iowa and Nebraska, in which, Mt
last accounts, no insects had appeared,
and the eggs were supposed to have been
killed by the severe weather late in April.
But in this State and Kansas it is be-
Geved that all the eggs that will hatch at
all have Matched already. Even on the
northern slopes least exposed to the sun
the eggs Matched four or five days ago
in most of the counties infested. The
young insects do not get wings until
about two months after Matching. Con
sequently, those in this State and Kan
sas cannot begin to fly earlier than the
end of June. BY that time not only will
their number have greatly diminished,
but the more important crops will be
mainly beyond harm. After that time
scattered swarms may be blown by strong
winds into counties eastward, but the
farther east they alight the more quickly
they are destroyed by the climate and
the parasites which infest them. Thus,
excepting such unimportant injury as
may be done by feeble, scattered and
speedily perishing swarms driven east
ward by the wind after the end of June
If, indeed, any survive so long-there
is really no danger whatever eastward of
the line reached by the insects last year
Another important conclusion reached
by an investigation of the nature of the
insect seems to be entirely sustained by
all information received this year. The
belt within which the young insects
hatch in numbers is narrower than that
over which the ravages last year extend
eel. Travelling sOutheastward, the mi
gratory swarms reached and passed one
strip of territory before they had at
tanned that stage of maturity at which
they deposit eggs. Again, after depos-
iting eggs, they still continue to march