50 THE REPORT OF THE No. 36 



It is fourteen years since the events I have just recorded took place and during 

 the interval we have been free from locusts in the province. The present year, 

 however, has once more brought the insects into prominence. 



The new outbreak is a serious one and promises to become still more so. 

 Fully half a million acres are already involved in the southern portion of Manitoba, 

 while there are several areas of lesser extent isolated from the rest. 



Strange as it may seem this severe outbreak came to us as a complete surprise, 

 not a report came in of injury the previous year though we know that the insects 

 must have been present in large numbers. This shows how little one can rely 

 upon farmers for such information and indicates how necessary it is to have 

 reliable scouts to be on the watch for just such a plague. The savings from such 

 observers, on this year alone, would have been sufficient to pay the salaries of half 

 a dozen scouts for the next ten years. When information did reach us the young 

 hoppers were already beyond immediate control, and when I arrived at the infested 

 area whole fields had been swept bare ; added to this was the fact that we were totally 

 unprepared and in consequence all the necessary supplies were lacking. It was 

 a week before poison could be shipped into the affected territory, and even then 

 it could not be secured in anything like sufficient quantity to cope with the out- 

 break. The Winnipeg labor strike was partly to blame for this and it also greatly 

 hampered transportation when the supplies were shipped from the east. These 

 are a few of the first difficulties we had to contend against. Next we had to 

 educate the farmers as to the means of control and this in itself was no simple 

 task. Most of the farmers involved had never witnessed a locust outbreak before 

 and when they saw the millions upon millions of tiny hoppers turning the green 

 fields black, many lost heart. Scoffers, too, were numerous, but some enterprising 

 men remained and by their aid examples were provided which added much to 

 our own demonstrations. Dead hoppers, small and hard to find among the grass, 

 were pointed out and as their numbers increased, and the dark areas grew no 

 larger, farmers took^ heart again; but only temporarily, soon fresh hordes were 

 making their way over the bodies of their dead companions and commenced to eat 

 new inroads into the crop. It was at this time that the human barometer fell 

 very low indeed and but for the former experience of a few men we might have 

 had difficulty in keeping the work going. Some farmers did indeed lose all hope 

 and, later, their crops 'also. Others of more persistent character continued in 

 their efforts and ultimately had the satisfaction of at least saving part of their 

 crops. As for the dead locusts it is hard to realize the vast numbers that covered 

 the ground. In one instance we found an average of 244 dead to the foot over a 

 large field, that is to say approximately 260 bushels per acre. On one square foot 

 at another place I counted 641 dead locusts, two-thirds of which were adults. I 

 give these instances from many similar ones. Had these locusts been permitted 

 to breed they would have produced at least 6,000 eggs to every square foot of land 

 on the field and these in their turn would have provided locusts enough to destroy 

 fully two thousand acres of crop next year. 



Much of the success obtained was due to the Provincial departments supply- 

 ing the poison free, while the municipalities, as a rule, provided the bran and 

 attractants. There was some delay, however, before these measures were adopted ; 

 many farmers in the meantime, procuring their own materials. 



Our measures of control did not differ to any marked extent from those in 

 use elsewhere; we relied chiefly upon the Kansas bait partly because it was more 

 easily mixed and also because it seemed more attractive to the grasshoppers than 



