50 



equals ditching. As for protecting plants by the application of powders and liquids, I have 

 come to the conclusion that it is out of the question. 



" If the eggs are duly destroyed, there will be no trouble from the young locusts ; but 

 where thess once abound, pecuniary inducement to collect and kill them should be oiFered by 

 the State. It is one of the best means of giving aid and employment to the suflcrers, who 

 cannot pursue their ordinary avocations till the plague measurably leaves or is banished. 



" In thhf connection I would also urge the employment of military force, a large amount 

 of which, in times of peace, could be ordered into the field at short notice. 



" To many, the idea of employing soldiers to assist the agriculturist in battling with this 

 pest may seem amusing and farcical enough, but though the men might not find glory in the 

 fight, the war — unlike most other wars— could only be fraught with gond consequences to 

 mankind. In Algeria, the custom prevails of sending the soldiers against these insects. 

 While recently in the south of France, I found, to my great satisfaction, that at Aries, Bouche 

 du Rhone, where the unfledged locusts (Caloptemis Italiciis, a species closely allied to the 

 Eocky Mountain locust) were doing great harm, the soldiers had been sent in force to battle 

 with them, and were then and there waging a vigorous war against the tiny foes. A few 

 regiments, armed with no more deadly weapon than the common spade, sent out to the suffer- 

 ing parts of Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska last spring, might, in a few weeks, have entirely 

 routed this pygmean army, and [materially assisted the farmer in his ditching operations. 



" A few other suggestions, and I will dismiss this part of the subject. Hogs and poultry 

 of every description delight to feed on the young hoppers, and will flourish where these abound 

 ^ when nothing else does. It will be well, in the event of a future invasion, for the people in the 

 invaded districts to provide themselves with as large a quantity as possible of this kind of 

 stock. Where no general and systematic efibrts were made to destroy either the eggs or the 

 young locusts, and it is found that, as spring opens, these young hatch out in threatening 

 numbers, the intelligent farmer will delay the planting of everything that he cannot protect 

 by ditching, until the very last moment, or till toward the end of June — using his team and 

 time solely in the preparation of his land. In this way he will not only save his seed and 

 the labour of planting, snd, perhaps, replanting, but he will materially assist in weakening 

 the devouring armies. Men planted this spring and worked with a will and energy born of 

 necessity, only to see their crops finally taken, their seed gone, and their teams and them- 

 selves worn out. The locusts finally devoured every green thing, until, finding nothing more, 

 they began to fall upon each other and to perish. This critical period in their history would 

 have been brought about much earlier if they had not had the cultivated crops to feed upon ; 

 and if by concert of action this system of non-planting could at first have been adopted over 

 large areas, the insects would have been much sooner starved out and obliged to congregate in 

 the pastures, prairies and timber. Moreover, the time required for early planting and culti- 

 vating, if devoted to destroying the insects after the bulk of them hatch out toward the end 

 of April, would virtually annihilate them. 



" 4. Destruction of JFinged Insects. — Man is comparatively powerless before the vast 

 swarms that wing their way from their native breeding places, and this part of the sub- 

 ject may be passed over in this connection. 



" 5. Prevention. — What I have so far said is, perhaps, of more interest to the farmer 

 than to the members of this association ; but in dealing with the fifth mode of counteract- 

 ing the injuries of the Rocky Mountain locust, I appeal more especially to your wisdom 

 and judgment. Prevention, in dealing with insect ravages, is always better than cure. ' A 

 little fire is quickly trodden out, which, being suffered, rivers cannot quench.' The proper 

 way to deal with this insect is to attack it in its native breeding places. 



" In my seventh Report I have shown that the insect is not autochthonous in much of 

 the more fertile country it devastates, and that it never extends east of the 17th meridian. 

 I have also given reasons for believing that the swarms from which we most suffer originate 

 in the Rocky Mountain regions of Dakota, Wyoming, Montana and British America. Our 

 efforts should be directed to its restriction within its natural limits. 



" In conclusion, the most important results are likely to How from a thorough study 

 of the Rocky Mountain locust in its native haunts and breeding places. By learning just 

 when and how to strike the insect, so as to prevent its undue multiplication there— whether 

 by some more extensive system of irrigation, based on improved knowledge of the topo- 

 graphy md water supply of the country, or by other means of destroying the eggs — we 



