34 ORTHOPTERA OF NORTHEASTERN AMERICA. 



UTILIZATION OF POULTRY. Where locusts are abundant each 

 season fanners can protect their crops and at the same time make 

 a profit off the insects by keeping large flocks of poultry. This 

 has been done many times in Kansas and other locust-infested 

 States. Portable poultry yards which can be easily moved from 

 one point to another will keep a flock of chickens in plentiful food 

 and at the same time rid large areas of the locust pest. 



About the best remedy for Orthoptera on a farm is a large 

 flock of turkeys. Under the leadership of an experienced gobbler, 

 almost their entire time during the summer and fall months is 

 spent in wandering over the fields and pastures in search of the 

 fat and juicy nymphs of locusts, grasshoppers and crickets. In- 

 deed, most of the luscious white and brown meat of our Thanks- 

 giving and Christmas dinners was once grass, then grasshoppers, 

 and finally turkey. No better and more practical remedy can be 

 devised, for the damage which the insects do, especially in these 

 days of '"turkey trusts," is often more than compensated by the 

 value of the pounds of flesh which this domesticated fowl stores 

 up from its favorite food of locusts.. 



THE COLLECTING AND PRESERVATION OF ORTHOPTERA. 6 



As will be noted in the pages which follow, each species of Or- 

 thoptera has its favorite local habitat or chosen haunt, the place 

 where it finds the struggle for existence least fierce, food most 

 abundant, protection or concealment from its enemies most easy. 

 Here the collector will find that species most abundant and for 

 the beginner a few directions for its capture and preservation 

 will perhaps be useful. 



INSECT NETS. The most efficient device for taking the ma- 

 jority of forms of Orthoptera is a strong sweep net. The frame 

 of the folding steel landing net made for fishermen and sold in 

 most sporting-goods houses serves admirably for the frame of a 

 sweep net. When unfolded it should have a diameter of about 

 16 inches ; and the handle should be preferably of one piece and 

 not over 30 inches long. The bag should be made of light canvas 

 or very heavy unbleached muslin and should be 20 to 24 inches in 

 depth. Such a net can be easily used with one hand both in 

 sweeping from side to side herbs and small shrubs as one walks 

 leisurely along, or it can be used more forcibly in quick upward 

 sweeps against the branches of larger shrubs and trees, thus jar- 



"For more detailed directions on this subject see Bruner (18953) or Banks (1909.) 



