=Many Drouths in the Early Years.= The task of turning the bare plains into fertile fields was a heavy one, and the brave people who began it endured many hardships and met many discouragements and disappointments. Severe drouths were of frequent occurrence in the early days, and hot winds often swept across the country. The year 1869 was dry, with a partial failure of crops, and in 1874 came a long dry spell, followed in the late summer by a scourge of grasshoppers. [Illustration: STATE GOVERNORS. 1861-1877. THOMAS CARNEY CHARLES ROBINSON SAMUEL J. CRAWFORD JAMES M. HARVEY NEHEMIAH GREEN THOMAS A. OSBORN] =The Grasshopper Invasion, 1874.= At different times there had been invasions of grasshoppers in the country west of the Mississippi River, but none of them was so disastrous as the one of 1874. The grasshoppers, which were a kind of locust, came into the State from the northwest and moved toward the southeast. The air was filled with them. They covered the fields and trees and destroyed everything green as they went. They left ruin and desolation in their pathway. In the western counties, where the settlements were new and the people had no crops laid by to depend upon, the result was much like that of the terrible years of 1859 and 1860. By the time of the invasion there were more people, more provisions, and more money, and the State was able to do much to help the thousands of its citizens who were left destitute. It became necessary, however, to accept aid from the East again, and thousands of dollars and many carloads of supplies were distributed to the needy. Never since has Kansas had to ask for help. In more recent years our State has given generously to sufferers in other states and in other lands. This visit of the grasshoppers was prolonged into the next year, for they had deposited their eggs in the ground and the next spring large numbers of young grasshoppers hatched. These destroyed the early crops, but for some unaccountable reason they soon rose into the air and flew back toward the northwest whence the swarms of the year before had come. There was still time for late planting, and the crops of 1875 were abundant. =Prosperous Years Follow the Grasshopper Invasion.= The coming of the grasshoppers had temporarily discouraged immigration, but prosperous years followed and people were again attracted to Kansas. More of the prairie was turned into farms; new towns sprang up; the country came to be more thickly settled; railroads, schools, and churches were built; new counties were organized; and the old stories of “The Great American Desert” were gradually forgotten. Kansas was taking her place among the states.