THE LOCUST OF NORTH- JVESTERN INDIA. 249 



• . when they are little helpless creatures, which can easily be destroyed by 

 driving them into |>its or lines of burning straw, or even by crushing them on the 

 ground; hut useful work can also be done by collecting the eggs and by beating 

 the winged insects off the crops upon which they settle. The precise measures 

 " inch are most appropriate for adoption in each case must of course depend to a 

 great extent upon the nature of the ground and the labour and appliances that are 

 available; but the experience of the past invasion, especially in Rawalpindi, Pesha- 

 war, Kohat, and Hissar, has shown conclusively what excellent results can be 

 obtained when the officials organize the measures of attack, and impress upon the 

 people the fact that combined and energetic action on their own part is more 

 efficacious than charms and votive offerings in saving their crops from destruction. 

 In Rawalpindi the Deputy Commissioner reports that he had no difficulty, 

 except where tahsildars were careless, in obtaining accurate, information as to the 

 laying of eggs. Men were specially employed to note where the flights rested, 

 and during April, 1890, whenever they stayed on sandy soil for the night, eggs 

 were usually deposited. These were at once dug up, and in no spot so dealt 

 with were young hatched. Mere ploughing of land in which eggs had been 

 deposited was thought to be useless, as the eggs were found to hatch out easily 

 even when detached from the egg tubes and exposed to the air. In this way 

 about five hundred maunds of eggs were destroyed, and after about the same 

 quantity of young locusts had been accounted for, the Deputy Commissioner 

 was able to report that the pest had been thoroughly stamped out without damage 



to the crops. 



In the Peshawar Division one hundred and twenty-nine maunds of young locusts 

 and eggs were destroyed by the tahsildars during April and May, 1890; and the 

 pest seems to have been to a great extent stamped out, in spite of the refusal, on 

 religious grounds, of the Afridis to co-operate by destroying the young locusts in 

 the neighbouring hills. The method generally adopted was that of driving the 

 young locusts into trenches ; Cyprus screens,* however, being also used in a few 



places. 



In Kohat the Deputy Commissioner reports that vigorous measures were taken 

 by the tahsildars for the destruction of the locusts, by driving them, when very 



* The Cyprus screen system consists of a series of cloth screens from two to three 

 feet high, bound along the upper edge with a strip of oilcloth to prevent the locusts 

 from climbing over. A long line of these screens is erected in front of an advancing 

 swarm of young wingless locusts, so as to form an impassable barrier for them ; pits 

 are dug at intervals, close to the screens and at right angles to them, on the side 

 towards the advancing swarm. The edges of the pits are guarded by frames, made 

 of cloth and wood, with overhanging zinc edges, arranged to prevent the escape 

 of the locusts from the pits. The swarms, on arriving at the screens, are found to 

 turn to the right and left, apparently endeavouring to go round them, and when 

 they come to the pits they pour into them, and, being unable to escape, can be 

 destroyed wholesale. 



