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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Fig. S. A Hopper-dozer in Action. 



does get some relief by the constant use of the old-time "hopper 

 dozer," driving it back and forth over his fields while the grain is 

 young. He may, if there is no hay crop at stake, and at some consider- 

 able risk to fences and buildings, burn over fields where myriads of 

 young hoppers are a few days old, if such fields are burnable; and he 

 may successfully, and with considerable profit to himself and family, 

 protect his vegetable garden with a flock of grasshopper devouring 

 turkeys. Yet none of the above measures is sufficient to obtain the 

 results necessary to successfully meet existing conditions, none of 

 them makes a sufficient impression upon the hordes of grain-devouring 

 insects. The exigencies of the case prompted the writer to experiment 

 with a poison spray (arsenite of soda) found successful in South Africa. 

 Our legislature of 1910-11, influenced by the fact that these pests were 

 on the increase, and that in 1910 the state lost almost or quite two 

 thirds of its flax crop through the work of grasshoppers, granted a 

 small appropriation for two years' work against this insect, under the 

 direction of the state entomologist. With these funds available, we 

 were enabled to employ four specialists in the field during the summer, 

 to buy spraying outfits and spraying material, and to visit and per- 

 sonally help individual farmers asking aid. 



The mental attitude of many of these citizens toward this work is 

 interesting. In the first place, in the winter, an apathetic condition 

 prevails; the lesser losses are forgotten, "Hope springs eternal," etc., 

 but in the summer, too late for efficient work, our office is deluged with 

 mail from the same farmers who, in the late fall and winter, expressed 



