LOCUST. 165 



according to the age and state of these in- 

 sects ; for some will be effectual as soon as 

 they are hatched ; others when they begin to 

 crawl ; and others in fine when they begin 

 to fly ; and experience has taught us here in 

 Transylvania, that it would have been of 

 great service to have diligently sought out 

 the places where the females lodged; for 

 nothing was more easy than carefully to visit 

 those places in March and April, and to 

 destroy their eggs, or little worms, with 

 sticks or briars ; or if they were not to be beat 

 out of the bushes, dung-hills, or heaps of 

 straw, to set fire to them ; and this method 

 would have been very easy, convenient, and 

 successful, as it has been in other places ; 

 but in the summer, when they have marched 

 out of their spring quarters, and have in- 

 vaded the corn-fields, &c. it is almost impos- 

 sible to extirpate them without thoroughly 

 threshing the whole piece of land that har- 

 bours them with sticks or flails ; and thus 

 crushing the Locust with the produce of the 

 land. Finally, when the corn is ripe or 

 nearly so, we have found, to our great loss, 

 that there is no other method of getting rid 



