Report of the State Entomologist 339 



sewed into one corner. A.8 this is drawn quicklj' over the ground by 

 a horse, and the bag or balloon becomes inflated by the wind or 

 draught, the "hoppers" are scooped vl\), or hop or fly into it. When 

 the bag is filled, the insects ard removed to other bags, in which they 

 are tied up for convenient measurement. It worked admirably, and 

 yielded golden returns. The fields were covered with hopper-catchers — 

 men, women, and children— the latter using their aprons and shawls, 

 and the women, table-cloths and sheets. The farmers gave up their 

 usual work for this better remuneration. They would allow no one 

 to share with them in the ingathering of this harvest, all intruders 

 being warned away by such signs as these posted up in conspicuous 

 places : "All hopper-catching forbidden on these premises," or " For 



the privilege of hopper- catching apply to ." The crop 



was undoubtedly the best paying one that their lands had ever 

 yielded. The number of bushels caught and measured in this man- 

 ner, and paid for by the commissioners, was 14,357. The nearly 

 $15,000 required for the purpose was considered as money well 

 expended. At the lowest estimate, the number of bushels of locusts 

 killed in Otter Tail county, during the season, was thirty-five thousand. 

 The total expenditures, under the different methods employed, was 

 $17,757 ; and, as the result, the crops of most of the farms were 

 saved. 



It having been found last spring (1889) that the eggs of the locusts 

 had been mainly deposited in stubble-fields, and that in every case 

 where such lands had been plowed, as the result of the deep burial of 

 the eggs beneath the surface, hardly a locust had made its appearance, 

 it was determined to plow all of the more badly infested fields, 

 through the aid extended by the state, while continuing the use of 

 the " hopper-dozers " on the less infested portions. All such fields 

 as were found on examination to contain a large number of the eggs, 

 if exceeding twenty-five acres (the smaller plots being left to the 

 owners to plow), were condemned, and farmers living in the vicinity 

 were invited to plow them within a given time. The plowing was 

 to be properly done as supervised by the owner, to the depth of at 

 least five inches, for which the laborer was entitled to draw his pay 

 of $1.25 per acre. This measure proved to be a complete success. 

 No locusts hatched in the plowed fields. Where the young had 

 emerged from the eggs, they were buried in the furrows and killed. 

 The number of acres plowed as above, was 6,361 — a trifle less than 

 ten square miles. The entire expenditure for the season, including 

 the " hopper-dozer " catching, burning over stubble and dead grass 

 fields, poisoning with London purple, etc., was $10,131. 



