40 



(People's Edition, page 173,) state that, "as locusts are the greatest destroyers of food, so 

 as some recompense, they furnish a considerable supply of it to numerous nations." After 

 quoting a number of authorities for this statement, they add that " they are preferred by the 

 Moors to pigeons ; and a person may eat a plateful of two or three hundred without feeling 

 any ill effects. They usually boil them in water hall an-hour (having thrown away the head, 

 wings and legs.) then sprinkle them with salt and pepper, fry them, adding a little vinegar.' 

 We trust that the editors of the Naiuralisl will try this recipe next summer ! Among the 

 food products of the North American Indian (Report of Agricultural Department, Washing- 

 ton, 1870,) we find enumerated grasshoppers or locusts, which are eaten by the Diggers of 

 California and the Plains. They roast them in holes in the ground and mi.x them with pow- 

 dered acorns; sometimes they make of them a soup or mush. Air. Taylor, however, (Smithsonian 

 Report, 1858,) referring to the same custom, declares that this kind of food is always found 

 to sicken the Indians, and that this result is vouched for by the early settlers and the natives, 

 and also by many travellers and voyagers who have visited California and the Rocky Mountain 

 country, and by the Jesuits of Lower California. From these statements we may ^infer that 

 the locusts on the western side of the Rocky Mountains, considered to be a distinct species 

 from the C. spretus of the eastern side, are unwholesome, but it remains to be proved that a 

 nutritious article of diet may not be obtained from the latter. Certainly, it is an experiment 

 worth trying ; if successful, we should havfe a double benefit — the lessening of the numbers 

 of the locusts, and a supply of food wherewith to meet the famine that they have produced. 

 Such a fate for the invaders would Vie true poetic justice. 



In the Smithsonian Report for 1858, to which we have already referred, there is an 

 interesting article, translated from the Russian of V. Motschulsky, in which much valuable 

 information is afforded respecting the mode of dealing with locusts in Southern Russia and 

 other neighbouring countries with regard to natural remedies. He states that '■ whole gene- 

 rations of them succumb to the climatic influence of those countries to which, impelled by 

 hunger, they betake themselves. Winds and storms not unfrequently cast vast swarms of 

 them into lakes and seas, and other millions perish in crossing rivers. Frogs, lizards and 

 various birds, especially of the starling, blackbird, lark, crow, jackdaw, stork and other spe- 

 •i s devour them with great avidity. Domestic fowls, as geese, ducks, turkeys and chickens 

 are exceedingly fond of such food." Among insects several species of ichneumons (Hymenop- 

 tera) destroy them both in the egg and larval states. He concludes that " of the eggs laid 

 by the locusts about one tenth only succeed in passing through all the transformations of their 

 existence, and with this tenth part alone it comes in contact with the husbandm.an. But even 

 this is sufficiently great to furnish matter for reflection to every one who knows by experience 

 what an attack of locusts is." 



After describing a large number of artificial modes of contending against the locusts, some 

 of which are quite useless, and others more or less successful, he draws up a number of gene- 

 ral conclusions. Those at all applicable to North America we shall quote, with a few remarks 

 upon them. 



(a) " It is necessary to observe in the autumn, especially after a hot summer, where the 

 locusts have deposited their eggs, and to accustom persons appointed for the purpose to do 

 so." Much might, we think, be done in this way both by the State authorities in the west, by 

 municipalities and by individuals. 



(b) " As soon as the labours of tillage will permit, people should be sent out in the fall to 

 collect the locusts' eggs, provided with instruments for turning up the ground. If the eggs 

 are deposited where ploughs and harrows can pass these should be made use of The egg- 

 tubes of the locusts should be poured into sacks, and either measured or weighed, and a 

 suitable award paid for the amount collected, so as to stimulate numbers to busy themselves 

 in this useful labour.'' If a certain price per bushel or hundred-weight were offered for the 

 egg-cases by the various local authorities in the regions affected, not only would the numbers 

 of the locusts be greatly reduced, but remunerative employment would be afforded to those 

 who have been suffering by their r.ivages. In many places the locusts deposit their eggs 

 where they have just ravaged the fields, consequently the inhabitants will not have far to 

 go in order to find the germs of the next year's trouble. It would be desirable, too, that well- 

 equipped expeditions of competent persons should be sent out to explore the regions border 

 ing on the Rocky Mountains, from which the swarms emanate in the first instance, 



(c) " All the places where locusts' eggs are found should be ploughed over, if possible. 



