34 PRKSIDENTIAL Ai)!>KKS.S SKC TIO.N C. 



In selecting locusts as my subject, I am influenced by some- 

 what selfish official considerations. In my estimation, there is 

 reason to believe that the Union is entering upon a cycle of 

 years when swarms of locusts will be widespread and destruc- 

 tive ; and l)y drawing your attention to these insects, I hope 

 observations may be ]n"om])te(l tliat will help to elucidate the 

 mysteries now surroundnig the origin, development, decline and 

 absence of locust eruptions. Not until the entomologist knows 

 the causes underlying these i)henomena will he l^e in a satis- 

 factory position to recognize and interpret aright the happenings 

 that portend a change from one condition to another. Within 

 a few months locusts have appeared in small numbers here and 

 there all the way fr^ m Ikisutoland on the east to Namaqualand 

 on the west, and some have been observed as far north as 

 Francistown in Southern Rhodesia, and as far south as Cradock 

 in the Cape Province. Because the occurrence has followed 

 close on a general drought, and after an interval of locust 

 absence, it is conjectured that a new locust cycle is impending or. 

 rather, has begun ; and, in consequence, the Government is making 

 expensive and troublesome ])rei)arations to fight the pest at a 

 time when the condition of the public treasury renders strict 

 economy essential. But as I shall undertake to show it is not 

 really known for certain that severe and general devastation by 

 the pest is threatened. It may be that there will be fewer 

 locusts in the 1015-16 season than there were in the 1014-1^ one. 

 The advisers of the Government, the entomologists, owing to 

 the present imperfect state of knowledge resjiecting the canses 

 of locust abundance, may not be reading nature's signs as they 

 should be read, or may be overlooking important indications. 

 Therefore, public funds may be needlessly expended, and the 

 ]ieople of the country needlessly agitated. On the other hand, 

 far greater trouble than is now imagined may be imminent, and 

 thus the Government's preparations prove inadequate. 



The term "locust " is somewhat vague in its application 

 to insects. I here use it to refer only to naturally gregarious, 

 short-horned, so-called grasshoppers that are capable of long- 

 sustained flight. Such insects are found on all the great con- 

 tinents, and by causing famines for man and beast, they have 

 attracted attention from time immemorial. Chinese records of 

 famines due to their depredations extend back over 2,000 years, 

 and old Roman writers refer to parts of Italy being laid waste 

 before the Christian era, while Biblical references will recur to 

 you. At the present time great trouble with them is experienced 

 in certain provinces of Russia and in Argentina. That Europe 

 is involved may surprise some of you; but most of Europe south 

 of the Baltic has been repeatedly ravaged, and in one great 

 irruption in the middle of the eighteenth century the pest reached 

 the British Isles, penetrating into Scotland and Wales, and being 

 especially destructive in the midland counties of England. The 

 invasions into Western Europe have always been from the East, 



