Departmental Activities. 498 



appeared to be a continuous process. Commonly swarms were made 

 up of voetgangers in different stages, amongst which fliers were 

 mingled ; and in some places the veld for many miles together was 

 reported to be seetliing with lioppers, the outbreak more resembling 

 an extraordinary superabundance of non-swaiming grasshoppers than 

 an occurrence of a gregarious locust. I]i Canada and the United 

 States, non-swarming grasshoppers often occur in prodigious numbers 

 and are very successfully poisoned over hundreds of thousands of acres 

 of grain land, a bran or saw-dust bait being used; but the scarcity of 

 material and of labour renders efficient action of the vsort quite imprac- 

 ticable on the South African veld. Apart from its occurrence in 

 many thousands of swarms, most of which have been poisoned, the 

 locust this season appears to have been liviug after the manner of a 

 grasshopper over an enormous area. Swarms have been reported here 

 and there all the way from Warmbad, South- West Protectorate, 

 south-eastwards into the Willowmore and Jansenville districts, oOO 

 miles away in a direct line. vSingle large farms have had hundreds 

 of swarms in many cases. Last year no swarms were reported. So 

 far as 'is yet known to the Department there have been only a few 

 swarms of voetgangers in Gordonia and none in the Transvaal, 

 Griqualand West, or the eastern Bechuanaland districts. The out- 

 break during April was most intense in the Murraysburg and 

 Aberdeen districts, but also was quite bad in Beaufort West, 

 Carnarvon, Victoria West, Prieska, and Britstown. It extended from 

 Hofmeyr and Cradock districts on the east to the Clanwilliam borders 

 and into Namaqualand four hundred miles to the west. Some swarms 

 of fliers were reported near Graafwater, in Clanwdlliam. On the 

 whole, the farmers have worked well, and there has beeii a notable 

 absence of religious scruples being urged as an excuse for neglect 

 and little resort to other measures of destruction than through the 

 use of the Government locust poison. The poor, ill-educated class of 

 farmer has, generally speaking, needed less attention to get to carry 

 out the requirements than the well-to-do educated class. 



The outlook for the coming season is for a much more intensive 

 visitation of the pest over a much larger area. A great number of 

 swarms of voetgangers naturally escaped detection in thinly populated 

 parts, and, as already intimated, there has been an extraordinary 

 prevalence of solitary locusts. The solitary locusts appear, from 

 reports, to be noM' moie numerous in many districts outside of this 

 season's region of swarms than they were last season inside this 

 region. They have l)een reported abuudant in the Kimberley, 

 Herbert, Fauresmith, Philippolis, Hopetown, T)e Aar, Richmond, 

 Philipstown, ]iethulie, Colesberg, and Albert districts, and further 

 observed in the Wodehouse and Oudtshoorn districts, respectively 

 far east and south of this season's swarm region. The examination 

 of specimens has removed any doubt that the insects observed were 

 true brown locusts, while the variableness in size and colouration of 

 the si)ecimens has indicated them as individuals reared in comparative 

 solitude. AVere they typical of the insect as it occurs in swarms, it 

 would be thought they were wanderers from swarms bred at a distance, 

 whereas the chances seem they developed neai- where they were found. 



It should be stated, however, that, while one is deemed probable 

 and will be prepared for, there is no certainty that we will have a 

 greater outbreak next season. The great reduction in the ]iest wrought 



