126 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. 



Woods, but I have not heard that they did so in 1874. Their 

 limit in this direction is pretty definitely fixed by the western 

 margin of the great woods, about long. 96°. They did not 

 appear at Fairford Port, on the northern part of Manitoba Lake, 

 nor at Swan Lake House (long 100° 30'. lat. 52° 40'), Cum- 

 berland House (long. 102° 30', lat, 54°), Prince Albert (long. 

 105° 30', lat. 53° 10'), or Fort Pitt (long 109° 20', lat. 53° 

 30'). They are very seldom seen at the second, and never at 

 the third and fourth of these localities. The exemption of Prince 

 Albert is noteworthy and instructive, as, on the testimony of 

 several gentlemen acquainted with the locality, it is due to a belt 

 of coniferous timber, which stretches between the North and 

 South Saskatchewan Pvivers here ; and though grasshoppers in 

 great abundance have visited the country south of the line thus 

 formed, they have never been known to cross it. 



The only crops which under ordinary circumstances the locust 

 will not eat, appear to be sorghum and broom corn ; but besides 

 a general preference for those plants which are tender and juicy, 

 it shows a considerable degree of aversion to certain species, and 

 these generally escape when the insects are not in very great 

 number. Potatoes, beets and tomatoes are usually thus exempt, 

 and a very decided dislike is shown to the Leguminosce or plants 

 of the pea and bean family. May not this last fact serve to 

 explain, to some extent, the vast number of leguminous plants 

 found on the western plains, which have no doubt been subject 

 for ages to the ravages of grasshopper armies? In Astragalus 

 pectinata the leguminous flavour is developed to a very offensive 

 extent. I have seen A. adsurgens stripped of its flowers by the 

 locusts, while the leaves, though young and tender, remained 

 entire. 



Experience abundantly proves that in years when foreign 

 swarms are to be expected, wheat is one of the safest crops, as it 

 is very generally too far advanced to be much injured at the 

 time of their arrival. It is essential, however, that it should be 

 as early as possible. 



It seems hardly necessary at this date, to review all the means 

 which have been proposed or tried, on a more or less extensive 

 scale, to protect crops from winged swarms, or to destroy the 

 eggs and young insects. Methods applicable with advantage to 

 well settled countries, are not useful, or only to a very limited 

 extent, in those with much waste land in proportion to the cul- 



