760 Agricultural Gazette of N.S. W. [Sept. 2, 1908. 



As s(M)ii iis we ai rived i pi'csente*! my credentials to tlie !)ii-ector of 

 Agriculture (Mr. Sarncoiiienos), and made an appointment to go out next 

 morinni; and see the methods thev adopted foi' catching the v'oung locusts. 

 The safne afternoon we attended a i'ecepti(jn at the High Connnissioner's, and 

 left our cards. Nextdav I had an interview with Sii- Cliarles King-Harnian 

 at Government House, and obtained his auriioritv to get Mr. Bevan, 

 Assistant Director of Agriculture, to go round the agricultural centres of 

 the island with me. With Mr. Saracomeiios I droxe out to the low, scrubljy 

 hills wliere the locust-catchers were at work sweeping the ground with lai-ge 

 calico nets, shaped in front like a bow, so that the tlat side was drawn over 

 the suT-face of the ground, aiifl the young hoppers fell into a small bag-like 

 aj)pendage at the l)ottt)m oi the net, from wliich they were shaken into a 

 small bag that the hunter carried tucked into his i»elt. We then went down 

 to the (j!o\crnment Camp, and saw the method of buying them by weight 

 from the hunters, who receive a slip giving the amount due to them, which 

 they present at the Treasury for jjaynieiit. The accumulated catch is shaken 

 into a large sack, which is finally emptied into a pit of quicklime and covered 

 u}). Since the time of the British occupation of Cyprus, in 1879, active 

 operations have been carried on against the locusts that breed in the rough, 

 barren lands of the island, and which had, under Turkish lule, often 

 devoured the gx"eater i)art of the crops grown on the island. 



At first attention was turned to the collection and destruction of the eggs, 

 and a tax of 7 to 8 okes of eggs (1 oke e(iuals *2I lb.) had to l)e paid to the 

 Government by every able-bodied man on the island. This collection started 

 on the 1st of June, and by the end of the year 138,4:L'2 okes of eggs liad 

 been bi'ought in and buried. Each }iod of eggs was found to contain 30 to 

 35 eggs, anfl each oke contained from 4-50 to 500 ]tods, so that the ([uantity 

 of eggs destroyed made a total of 2,000,000,000. In spite of this work being 

 carried out, on the following year the locusts did not api>ear to decrease, and 

 the nati\es lost heart. In 188} it was decided to use Mr. Kichai-d Muttei's 

 methods of pits and screens, and until 1897 this was the plan adopted, an 

 incouH'-tax being made law, the revenue of which was used for the expense 

 of killing out the locusts. 



Screens were erected, and pits dug along the line of march of the locusts 

 as soon as they emerged from the eggs and began to feed, and they were 

 dri\en against the screens, from which they fell, and, moving downwards, 

 encountered the pits, into which they tumbled, men with spades covering 

 them over with earth and tramyjing them down when full. 



In 1883 the Government employed 2,631 men on the work of locust destruc- 

 tion, and 7,5 13 screens were in use, most of which were in 50-yard lengths, 

 in th(^ following year 11,085 screens were in use, when the .sum of money 

 expended in this woik reached to £14,746, and between the years 1881 and 

 1886 the sum of £66,841 was spent on this work. 



The Conmiissioner, commenting on this expenditure in ili-^ leport, .says : — 

 "Large as this expenditure may seem, it is certain that it has already l^een 

 recovered by the island many times over in the value of the crops saved. 



