THE MONTHLY BULLETIN". 381 



thoroughly that with the first appearance of the insects if they could be 

 dealt with and destroyed, using such methods as have been described 

 here, that the great damage which has been done heretofore to the vine- 

 yards would be obviated. You could then go on and collect and 

 harvest a good crop without fear of the second crop of insects doing so 

 much damage, because if on its -first appearance the insect is destroyed, 

 of course there will be a much smaller second crop appearing. Now, 

 then, I have a little orchard of eight acres which for three years 

 has not been producing more than a quarter to two thirds what it should 

 on account of the hoppers. The vines were so badly infested, and 

 affected to such an extent, that by harvest time they were abso- 

 lutely denuded of leaves, and the sun so scorched the fruit that we 

 could not harvest more than two thirds of the crop. Last year for some 

 reason that same vineyard produced two tons of fruits. There were 

 plenty of hoppers last year too, but they didn't get started so soon. 

 The first crop was less and consequently the second was not large 

 enough to destroy the crop for that year. I have examined the machine 

 referred to by Professor Quayle. This machine is hauled by four horses 

 and costs seventeen hundred dollars. If there could be a small engine 

 to draw the machine or even possibly it could be something on the order 

 of a mowing machine ; the power produced by the horses could produce 

 sufficient suction with a small apparatus that could be made of canvas 

 to cover the vines and draw in this first crop of hoppers as they appear. 

 They will appear on the vines just as soon as the warm weather comes, 

 and they start work just as soon as the vines leaf out. Now, if some- 

 thing could be contrived, without much expense as I believe it could, to 

 collect that first crop of insects, you would do away with the necessity 

 of having to do anything with the second crop. 



Mr. Perkins (Fresno). I find that the hoppers are very much worse 

 on other vines than on the Muscats or Thompson Seedless. Two years 

 ago we had fewer hoppers than we had last year, or in previous years for 

 two or three seasons. Now, I would like to ask if it could possibly have 

 been due to the frost that we had, that it caught the hoppers at just the 

 right time to weaken their numbers 1 It is the only possible explanation 

 which I can give of their being so much less that year than they were 

 this season. 



Prof. Quayle. I agree with the gentleman that a year ago last spring 

 the frost was probably responsible for the diminishing numbers of the 

 hoppers to a great extent. They come out in the vineyards in very large 

 numbers in many places of this section and I was planning to do some 

 control work, but the frost practically killed all the leaves on most of the 

 vines in some vineyards, thus the hoppers suffered for want of food. The 

 vineyards had already been plowed, and so there was absolutely nothing 

 for them to feed on and very large numbers were destroyed. The frost 

 undoubtedly caused the disappearance of the hoppers a year ago last 

 spring. 



Dr. Cook. This is an important matter for us and I feel that it is a 



