MEANS OF DESTROYING THE GRASSHOPPER. 219 



60 enormous while tlieir destruction was going on, became quite 

 imperceptible. Each day they alighted on new places, and everywhere 

 produced devastation. Consequently all the labors described were only 

 so much money thrown away, in addition to the losses suffered directly 

 from the locusts, which had then destroyed not less than half of all the 

 grain sown. 



If we assume the same ratio for the number of laborers who turned 

 out to destroy the locusts through the whole province of Bessarabia, 

 in the Kherson, and other governments to which the insect migrated, 

 we may boldly assert that more than a hundred thousand working 

 days of the best farming season were spent in destroying them without 

 success.* An immense amount of money was thus completely wasted. 



Meanwhile the dread of the locusts was not put an end to. From 

 information collected in the places themselves, it appears that they 

 left their eggs behind them over an extent of 14,4 2G desjatins, or 

 nearly 39,000 acres. Calculating a single egg-sac for every square 

 sazhen, (49 square feet,) we obtain 34,622,400 sacs; and at the rate of 

 50 eggs to a sac, the whole will amount to 1,731,000,000 of eggs. 



If a locust during its life time, {. c, in the course of 100 days, will 

 require, on an average^ for its support twelve drachms of common grass 

 per day, then the consumption of these insects for the whole of their 

 existence will not be less than 228,000,000 poods, or 3,075,787 tons. 



Estimating the value of a pood of grass at one silver kopek, (three- 

 fourths of a cent,) the whole loss sustained by the ravages of locusts 

 in Bessarabia in the year 1835 will amount to at least 2,280,000 silver 

 rubles, or $1,710,000. It should likewise be observed that in making 

 these estimates the very smallest measures are taken, and that grain 

 is reckoned at the same value as grass. After this, it will certainly 

 not appear strange that the locust should be considered a destructive 

 insect. 



Some have thought to free their fields from locusts by watering them 

 with lime-water or lye. But is it practicable to carry this out to any 

 great extent, and will the fluid fall on the locusts' eggs, especially 

 when they are covered with a coating of earth? In Slavonia, at the 

 close of the last century, for the purpose of destroying the footed 

 locust, which was already crawling about, they made use of wooden 

 harrows loaded with weights, which were dragged about the fields as 

 in harrowing grain. Some of them went obliquely, one after the other, 

 beginning with a large circle; each succeeding time they described 

 smaller circles; and in this manner, advancing in a spiral, they grad- 

 ually approached the centre. But as the harrow went slowly and 

 could follow only the prescribed course, the locusts easily leaped aside, 

 and the entire proceeding was almost fruitless. 



It has been proposed to surround the fields with cords and rods 

 smeared over with tar, to which the locust has a great repugnance. 

 Yet it is scarcely possible to carry this plan into execution, except for 

 very small enclosures. 



Lastly, for the purpose of driving the insects away, long ropes have 



■~" And this, too, because, from want of a knowledge of the habits of the insect, its destruc- 

 tion was commenced too lute and without a previous examination of the locality. 



