250 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1891. 



young, into pits, and later on, when they could hop further, by driving them 

 on to bushes which were then burnt. Vast numbers were in this way destroyed 

 (over a thousand inuunds of young locusts being reported as destroyed in a single 

 tahsil), and the pest was, at least for the time, almost completely stamped out. 



In the Hissar district, according to the report of the Deputy Commissioner, pits 

 were used for destroying the young locusts ; also the bushes on which the young 

 locusts rested during the heat of the day were beaten with branches to kill th e 

 insects, and as they grew bigger they were destroyed by piling thorns round the 

 bushes on which they rested and setting fire to them. 



In the Bikanir Agency in 1890 (according to the official diary) efforts were 

 made to destroy the young locusts by sweeping them into trenches, hut they were 

 in such numbers that success was only partial. In the Marwar, Jeysulmere, and 

 Sirohi States also, it is reported that the Rajput cultivators and landowners 

 destroyed many of the insects by means of trenches, but the destruction seems to 

 have been unsystematic and to have done but little good. 



The keeping of the winged nights off the crops by lighting fires, beating tom- 

 toms, waving sheets in the air, and beating with palm leaves, seems to have been 

 generally adopted, in many cases with considerable success— vide numerous 

 reports from different districts in the Punjab, North- W est Provinces, the Central 

 Provinces, &c. 



The following extract from report by the Collector, Ajmere, is of interest in 

 connection with the measures that can be adopted: — 



" The first reports regarding locusts were received about the 15th July, 1889. It 

 was then stated that young locusts had come out of the earth in great numbers 

 in the low sandy tracts in Marwar (Jodhpur) bordering the Marwara hills, and 

 that they were advancing towards Marwara. On the 27th July the first swarm 

 reached our border, and as others were approaching, I went to the spot with 

 Mr. Egerton in order to take such measures as might appear appropriate. The 

 locusts had got imperfectly developed wings and were unable to fly. The West- 

 ern Marwara border runs through rocky forest-clad country, and our object was 

 to prevent the locusts from penetrating the forest which, on our side of the frontier, 

 is 2 to 4 miles broad, and behind which the cultivated area extends. A large num- 

 ber of villagers were called out, and in order to enable them to come, and to 

 make sure that they would stay, they were allowed to bring their cattle and 

 sraze them in the forest reserves near the border. It was also supposed that the 

 cattle might help in destroying the locusts, but though they did eat them, they 

 could not be said to be of any real use. They were organized in gangs, and wher- 

 ever the locusts appeared they were beaten down with strips of bark about 4 feet 

 long and 1 foot broad taken off the neighbouring trees. The bark is very tough 

 and each stup served for many days. Large numbers of locusts were killed in 

 this way. It was impossible to dig trenches in the rocky soil, and the procedure 

 adopted was a complete success. Nothing was touched on our side of the border, 

 while not a blade of grass was left on the Jodhpur side, where nothing was done 



