April, '12] WASHBURN: GRASSHOPPERS IN MINNESOTA HI 



Detroit, Michigan, in the early spring of the year. Further, I have 

 seen S. parvulus in great numbers attracted by the white walls of the 

 Capitol in Washington, where they had flown from the surrounding 

 grassy lawn; S. ochreus was seen by Mr. Hubbard and myself flying 

 about in great numbers on July 4th on the shores of Great Salt Lake, 

 Utah, and finally every visitor to Florida can see hundreds of speci- 

 mens of Rhynchophorus cruentatus flying about in the evening of any 

 warm summer day. 



President F. L. Washburn: Anything else to be said on this 

 paper? 



The next paper on the programme is by the chair, on ''Grasshopper 

 Work in Minnesota." Doctor Ball will you take the chair? 



GRASSHOPPER WORK IN MINNESOTA DURING THE 

 SEASON OF 191 1 



By F. L. Washburn, Experiment Station, University of Minnesota, Minnesota. 



In the western third and half of the southern part of Minnesota 

 grasshoppers of various species have been increasing to such an extent 

 that serious losses have been occasioned. It is not to be understood 

 that the entire grain output of Minnesota has been materially lessened 

 by the ravages of these pests, although in 1910 it was estimated that 

 two-thirds of the flax crop was destroyed, but individual farmers 

 living in the districts above specified lost from 20% to 90% of their 

 crops, and in some cases their entire crop of grain was destroyed. 

 All grains have suffered, as well as timothy, corn, young trees in nursery 

 row, garden products, and particularly flax. 



The greatest destruction has, in every case, been in proximity to 

 large tracts of land which have been, perhaps, in tillage some years 

 ago, and have been allowed to revert to natural conditions. Such 

 tracts are the direct cause of all the trouble which we have experienced. 

 It is true we have in Minnesota a grasshopper law which, supposedly, 

 effects the plowing of such dangerous land when infested with grass- 

 hopper eggs, but, as a matter of fact, the law is ineffective through 

 faulty wording, and it is utterly impossible for counties to plow this 

 land. For instance, in one township alone in a western county we 

 know of at least 8,000 acres of land which calls for the plow and does 

 not get it. Through the ineffectiveness of this law the owner cannot 

 be forced to plow, and at the rate of $2.50 an acre it would cost this 

 county over $16,000 to take care of reverted land in this single town- 

 ship. 



Conditions became so serious in this state that the entomologist 



