MEANS OF DESTROYING THE GRASSHOPPER. 



223 



Fig. 4. 





X^. 





was attached a hoop of an elliptical shape. To the two opposite edges 

 of the hoop, at the place of the 

 greatest curve, cords were fast- 

 ened. Grown persons or children, 

 by taking hold of the cords, drag- 

 ged the sack along as rapidly 

 as possible, almost touching the 

 ground. The locusts that fell 

 in were trampled on with the 

 feet. The dead insects were then 

 thrown out and tbe catching 

 recommenced. 



A still better apparatus, em- 

 ployed with great success in 

 the south of France, consists 

 of a sack growing narrower 

 towards the bottom and fas- 

 tened to a pole in the manner i 

 employed by entomologists, f 

 According to Solier, an ordi- ; 

 nary boy with this contri-; 

 vance will catch not less than ', 

 50 kilograms, which is at 

 least ten times as much as by 

 any of the preceding meth- 

 ods.* This hunt for the wingless locusts is undertaken in May or June. 

 The American writer, Harris, recommends that all the grass and 

 grain should be mowed in those months in which the young locusts 

 make their appearance, thus destroying them by hunger ; inasmuch 

 as at that time they are feeble and unable to migrate far in search of food. 

 Besides, they lose the power of sheltering themselves from the weather, 

 and soon perish from cold and storms. 



All the methods described are of incontestable utility, and have 

 often proved so in practice. But unfortunately they are not always 

 carried out with the necessary exactness, at the proper time, and 

 under the circumstances indicated. By reason of the carelessness 

 which seems inherent in so many people, they undertake the destruc- 

 tion of the locusts Avhen they are already, so to speak, at the husband- 

 man's door. No one observes or wishes to observe the place where 

 the locusts lay their eggs in the spring, or the time of their hatching, 

 because then tliey do no injury. They do not know or care to know 

 how the insects are developed, when they begin their march, or when 

 their flight takes place. Having thus allowed the locusts quietly to 

 breed arid develop, they employ too late and without discrimination 

 the above described means, which accordingly prove inefficacious. 



In the Appendix to Vol. XIII of the Collection of the Civil Laws 

 of Russia, very useful rules and precepts are given for the destruction 

 of locusts; but few know how to apply them. 



* All these methods are efficacious, if skillful arrangements are made for them; but the 

 places in which this mode of capture is practised are more or less trampled dowu by the 

 laborers. 



