MEANS OF DESTROYING THE GRASSHOPPER. 221 



and in the course of the spring as many as 80,000 okas of the young 

 larv'j\3 were collected in tliis manner. 



In France, when the locusts make their appearance, every one turns 

 out that can — men women, and children, and with whatever is at 

 hand. From the earliest times, hy a regulation of the government, a 

 common price has heen paid for the locusts collected and also for their 

 eggs. The collected eggs are either huried in the ground or thrown into 

 the rivers,* About Aries, Rte, Marie, St. Jerome, and other ]mrts of 

 Provence, women and children are mostly employed in collecting the 

 eggs; and as the locust breeds there perpetually, its destruction is a 

 task constantly devolving upon the inhabitants. 



In Italy likewise a price is paid for collecting locusts, and once, 

 in the neighborhood of Milan, the rural police received not less than 

 12,000 sacks of them, which had been gathered in the course of a few 

 days. 



In Hungary, not only all the people turn out to the locust hunt, 

 but even the domestic animals and fowls join eagerly in the pursuit ; 

 and for what is collected a reward is paid by the government. The 

 same is the case in Spain, where, in the year 1780, about Zamora, 

 in addition to the peasantr}', the troops were employed in destroying 

 the locusts. They were stationed around the young locusts just 

 hatched, and with long brooms swept them into common heaps, around 

 which fires were kindled. Three thousand men were employed by 

 turns in this work for three weeks, and they succeeded in collecting 

 about 18,000 bushels of locusts, so that each man in twenty-one days 

 caught about six bushels, or a little over nine quarts a day.f 



With us in Russia, it was decreed by an imperial ukaz of tlie l7th 

 of July, 1802, that a sum equal to about a cent a pint should be paid 

 for locusts' eggs collected in Little Russia ; afterwards the price was 

 raised to ten cents. On the appearance of the locusts in the i)rovince 

 of New Russia in the year 1823, the chief local government appro- 

 priated the sum of $75,000 ; but the amount of private expenditure 

 on this account was not ascertained. 



In France, at the present time, a reward of half a franc is paid for 

 a kilogram of the eggs, and a quarter of a I'ranc for the same weight 

 of insects.! It is known that in the year 1613 the city of Aries ex- 

 pended the sum of 25,000 francs for collecting 134,000 kilograms 

 (about 295,000 pounds) of eggs and insects. The city of Marseilles 

 spent 20,000 francs in this way in the same year, 5,542 francs in 1824, 

 and 6,200 francs in 1825. In the year 1832, in Ste, Marie alone, 61 

 laborers collected 1,979 kilograms of locusts' eggs ; and in 1833 they 

 gathered 3,908 kilograms ; so that one person collected not over 63 

 kilograms in the course of three months. § 



* A very had practice, inasmuch as tlie egg-sacs whiclr are cast iuto the water may be 

 thrown up again on the banic, and, under favorable ch'cumstauces, may be hatched. 



t A very small quantity, in conseciuenceof undertaking the work too late, namely, when the 

 locusts had already begun to crawl about 



t As the locust is comparatively light, the price for collecting them in Franco is hardly less 

 than with us. 



§ Or scarcely two-thirds of a kilogram per day; which at least shows how defective were 

 the arrangements for the destruction of the insects, and how iueilicient was the mode of col- 

 lecting. 



