368 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. 



erly organized department of agriculture, liberally supported by 

 Congress, and aided by the war department and the signal bu- 

 reau, the plan could soon be perfected and carried out at minimum, 

 expense. I believe, seeondly, that where the insect's multipli- 

 cation cannot be prevented in its natural breeding-grounds our 

 farmers in the more thickly-settled sectious may, by the use of 

 smoke, measurably tnrn the course of invading swarms and pro- 

 tect their crops, — obliging the insects to resort to the uncultivated 

 areas. 



Were the injury to continue for another three or four years as 

 it has for the past four, and were the Western farmers to suffer 

 a few more annual losses of forty million dollars, such schemes as 

 I have suggested would soon be carried out. The danger is that 

 during periods of immunity, indifference and forgetfuluess inter- 

 vene until another sweeping disaster takes us by surprise. 



Rules greatly assist in the solution of any problem, and in pro- 

 portion as we get at a knowledge of the laws governing this 

 Rocky Mountain locust shall we be able to overcome it. The 

 country which it devastates is so vast, and the question as to its 

 origin and the causes of its disastrous migrations is so compli- 

 cated, that a limited study is apt to beget doubt as to whether 

 there are any laws governing the insect or any rules for our 

 guidance. The facts of sociology are so innumerable that the 

 ordinary gleaner of them reaps but confusion. It requires the 

 genius and comprehensiveness of a Herbert Spencer to deduce 

 principles therefrom, — to perceive the laws by which society is 

 moulded. The vain, delusive confidence begot of first study of any 

 difficult subject — that follows superficial knowledge, — reacts in 

 doubt and diffidence upon deeper delving and more thorough 

 study. 



" The more I learn the less I know" is a paradoxical but very 

 common remark. It is only after passing through this period of 

 doubt in any inquiry that we can begin to see the light ; and in 

 this locust inquiry it is only after accumulating facts and experi- 

 ences until they almost overwhelm us with their complexity that 

 we can begin to generalize and deduce rules. 



The history of this insect east of the Rocky Mouutains, when 

 viewed from a comprehensive stand-point, presents certain well- 

 marked features. We have first the migration of winged swarms 

 in autumn from the higher plains of the West and Northwest, 

 into the more fertile country south of the 44th parallel and east 



