REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST 221 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



was, practically speaking, at a standstill. The grasshoppers are later this year than 

 last, being only in the second or third stage when I saw them on Friday last ; in fact, 

 many of them were still in the first stage, and I suppose others were not yet hatched. 

 You could readily notice, as you drove from farm to farm, where they were doing dam- 

 age, a strip was eaten clean off from 3 to 10 feet wide, and sometimes a corner extended 

 in, on a rise of ground, 20 feet or more. Farmers told me that, where fields were 

 ploughed last spring or early this spring, no hoppers had appeared. The trouble is 

 all from stubble fields not yet ploughed. I have great sympathy with the farmers ; 

 they could not carry out the instructions to the letter as to ploughing all stubble. 

 You will remember that, where we went together last year, and where the trouble is 

 again this season, the farmers on that light soil summer-fallow nearly half of their 

 land each year. Last year the harvest extended almost to snow fall on account of the 

 wet weather, so that farmers could not possibly plough all their stubble land. This 

 year spring conditions were so favourable that it was generally thought that we must 

 be going to have a very big crop ; the farmers, accordingly, tried to put in as many 

 acres as possible, feed for horses was scarce, and the result is that the stubble fields 

 are still unploughed, and their horses are poor. The only remedy I can see for clean- 

 ing out the hoppers, if they continue to appear annually, is for farmers to curtail their 

 farming operations, and seed down part of the present cultivated land to brome grass, 

 bo that they can handle the remaining portion before the grasshoppers hatch in the 

 spring. The outlook, however, is now hopeful. Rain commenced to fall in the western 

 part of the province on Saturday, coming to Brandon on Sunday, and on to Winnipeg 

 by Monday night. Tuesday was wet, Wednesday cloudy and some misty rain, and to- 

 day we had wonderful rain and a storm of rain and snow, which of course melts as it 

 falls. I think these conditions are general over the province. I shall anxiously watch 

 what effect the rain has on the hoppars, and, as soon as the weather fairs up, I shall 

 again visit the districts. I hope it may not be for a week or ten days and that this 

 weather will finish the grasshoppers for the season. The growth of wheat and all vege- 

 tation will be so rapid that the grasshoppers will be lost in it. I shall be pleased to 

 report to you from time to time about them.' — Hugh McKellar. 



' Winnipeg, June 17. — Although the grasshoppers are so troublesome this season, 

 yet I do not think that any great majority of them are M. spretus. I have letters 

 from Morden, Altona and Chortitz, as well as from all points where they were numer- 

 ous last year, asking for investigation and instruction. I understand that they are 

 very numerous at these points. My intention is, at present, to go with you on a flying 

 trip through the whole district to all of these points, so that you may be thoroughly 

 acquainted with the conditions that exist, and may be able to advise the Department 

 regarding any further work which you may think advisable. No doubt some meetings 

 will be held and addresses delivered to the farmers. Rains continue every other day, 

 and from all parts of the province come reports of most wonderful growth of all kinds 

 of vegetation. We have sent out over 1,000 pounds of Paris green, and I am receiving 

 very favourable reports of the success of farmers in destroying the grasshoppers.' — • 

 Hugh McKellar. 



Mr. McKellar's expectations as to the early disappearance of the grasshoppers 

 were only partially fulfilled. The wonderful growth of all vegetation certainly pre- 

 vented what would have been serious loss in an ordinary season. 



' Brandon, Man., June 28. — On the light land near Sewell, grasshoppers have been 

 very bad lately. I saw a field of over one hundred acres sown with wheat with not a 

 Bolitary blade of grain or grass standing — only a few Artemisias. Grasshoppers by the 

 millions were on the roads. I am sending you a few by mail.' — S. A. Bedford. 



The grasshoppers sent with this communication were all the Lesser Migratory 

 Locust. 



At the request of the Provincial Minister of Agriculture, I was instructed by the 

 Honourable Sydney Fisher to proceed to Manitoba to visit the infested districts and, 



