MEANS OF DESTROYING THE GRASSHOPPER. 225 



of insects were collected. In a single hour six youths crushed more 

 than a troop of 200 horses could have done ; which could not have 

 "been accomplished by three hundred men with brooms after the 

 locusts had attained their growth. A bushel of these small locusts 

 contained so large a number of them, that three weeks later they 

 would have made over a hundred bushels. And for this there was 

 required neither carts and teams, nor troops of horses, nor bush- 

 beaters. Accordingly, for the destruction of the locusts in the Olanesh. 

 district in the year 1837, there were expended 200 days of labor, that 

 is to say, twenty times less than in the year 1835; and the success ivas 

 complete, for the inhabitants of these localities affirm that of the 

 locusts of 1837 not one reached the winged state. 



From what precedes we are led to the following general conclusions : 



1. It is necessary to observe in the autumn,* esjjecially after a hot 

 summer, where the locusts have deposited their eggs, and to accustom 

 persons appointed for the purpose so to do, especially youths and young 

 children, who else would idly run about the fields and meadows. 



2. As soon as the labors of tillage will permit, people should be 

 sent out in the fall to collect the locusts' eggs, provided with sharp 

 sticks or hoes for turning up the ground. If the eggs are deposited 

 in the fields or in sandy places where ploughs and harrows can pass, 

 these latter should be made use of. The egg-tubes of the locusts 

 should be poured into sacks, and then measured or weighed, and a 

 suitable reward paid for the amount collected^ so as to stimulate the 

 work-people, and especially, the children, to busy themselves in this 

 useful labor. 



3. All the places where locusts' eggs are found should be ploughed 

 over, if possible, two or three times very late in the autumn, selecting 

 for this purpose rainy and dull days, because the eggs thus turned up 

 and exposed are destroyed by the wet or by the birds of passage which 

 then make their appearance. Special attention should also be given 

 to bare spots in the fields^, where not unfrequently great quantities of 

 egg-tubes remain unobserved. 



4. If, after a hot summer, the fall and winter are equable, it will 

 be necessary to repeat in the spring the search for the brood hatched 

 from the eggs that have survived the winter ; because this sort of 

 weather is uncommonly favorable to the complete and uninterrupted 

 development of the insect. 



5. Since the Italian locust is hatched from the egg much earlier 

 than the Asiatic or migratory insect,'}" as soon as the rivers break up 

 intelligent persons should be sent every year without fail to examine 

 all the places where the locusts usually come forth, so as not to lose 

 the opportunity for destroying them which presents itself when they 

 sit together in swarms. For the discovery of every such swarm of 

 insects that have not yet begun to crawl about a suitable reward in 

 money should be offered. 



6. If the locusts are hatched and their swarms discovered, the boys 



** Beginning in the month of August. 



■j- All the methods of extirpation hero dcsciibcd are applicable to tlie Asiatic as well as 

 to the Italian locust ; with this difference only, that they must be applied at the time 

 when each species makes ita appearance. 



15 



