226 



MEANS OF DESTROYINa THE GRASSHOPPER. 



and girls of the village should he immediately sent out under the 

 superintendence of some grown persons, the former provided with the 

 heaters represented in fig. 5, and the latter with the crusliing shovels 

 in fig. 6, and with sacks or bags for holding the dead insects. The 

 crushing shovels may also have a straight handle made movable in a 

 vertical plane, it being fastened to the blade by means of a piece of 

 leather, Vv^hich is nailed on to the blade and is bound to the lower end 

 of the handle by a cord. The blade should be so fastened to the 

 handle, that when one takes hold of the latter with both hands, the 

 whole lower surface of the blade can readily be brought flat down 

 upon the ground. 



These shovels may be made in the shape of fly-flaps, such as were 

 used in former times for killing flies on the walls of apartments, which 

 consisted of a handle, to the end of which was nailed a small piece of 

 pretty stout leather. In our shovels the leather of the fly-flaps is 

 replaced by a board or blade. Such an implement has this advantage, 

 that the handle, in consequence of its mobility, can be bent vertically, 

 and the man standing over the blade can crush the young locusts 

 with his whole weight. It will not be difficult for people sent out in 

 this way to crush out the whole brood of locusts without leaving any 

 behind, and that in a short time. 



7. A few days afterwards people should be despatched again to the 

 places where the locusts were, in order to ascertain whether any of the 

 brood remain uncrushed; and if they have actually escaped destruction 

 and have begun to crawl about, or have set out on their march, it 

 will be necessary to drive out to such places the hogs and domestic 

 fowls, as turkeys, geese, ducks, chickens, &c. Children, also, with 

 bags attached to a hoop and fixed to the end of a staff, as represented 

 in fig. 4, can be sent to catch the locusts by sweeping the bags over 

 the grass and grain as a mower swings his scythe. This, however, 

 should not always be done in the same direction ; they should be in- 

 structed, wherever the locusts are found in the greatest numbers, to 

 sweep alternately to the right and left. Having made about ten 

 sweeps, let them turn the ring over, so as to close the bag and prevent 



the locusts that have fallen into 

 it from escaping. These are to 

 he emptied into larger bags or 

 sacks, and then crushed by 

 pounding with pestles, as shown 

 in fig. 8. The children should 

 be rewarded by a payment in 

 money for a successful catch. 

 By repeating this sort of hunt 

 a,fter the footed locusts one, two, 

 or more days, according to their 

 growth, number, and greedi- 

 ness, the grass trodden down by 

 the children has time to recover, 

 and in a short time the insects 

 are all caught, notwithstanding 

 their almost infinite numbers. It should also be observed that breed- 



Fig. 8. 



