In July of this year (1874), to the astonishment of all, innumerable multitudes of “hoppers” suddenly appeared as if rising out of the ground; and they did so rise. In the previous fall the female locusts had deposited in cylindrical wells about an inch deep and one fourth of an inch in diameter, hollowed out on high ground, clusters of eggs inclosed in protecting envelopes and covered with soil. The midsummer heat hatched these eggs, and the brood at once fell on the growing crops. In a few days not a spear was left over large areas, and the hoppers had grown wings. Taking wing as if by a common inspiration, they flew over into Blue Earth, Sibley, Nicollet, and Renville counties, where they repeated the devastation of the previous season. But the counties thus abandoned were again in many places infested by fresh swarms from the southwest. In all twenty-eight counties were visited in 1874. Upon an appeal from the governor a subscription was opened for the relief of stricken settlers. General Sibley, at his request, undertook the disbursement, and later accounted for $19,000. The legislature of the following winter set aside $45,000 for immediate relief and $75,000 for seed, the latter sum to be repaid along with taxes. The devastations of 1875 did not extend more widely and were somewhat less damaging, but they added not a little to the discouragement and gloom resulting from the panic. * * * * * The Republican party was so completely in the ascendant in the seventies in Minnesota that the only political events of importance were those which occurred in its ranks. United States Senator Daniel S. Norton died July 13, 1870, and it fell to the legislature assembling in the January following to elect his successor. It took but a single ballot in the Republican caucus to decide who should be Senator Ramsey’s colleague. William Windom had given such satisfaction by his five consecutive terms as representative in Congress from the first district that, Mr. Donnelly being out of the road, there was none to dispute his claim to the promotion. Mr. Windom’s large acquaintance, his long legislative experience, his sound common sense and Quaker simplicity of manner at once gave him a standing at the other end of the capitol not easily accorded to new senators.