62 



pers, .suffici(mt in the great majority of cases to maintain them from 

 the tiine of their liatching to their death. Moreover, on these islands 

 they are safe from their natural enemies. Therefore, the investigators 

 of the oTiisshoppers, as well as some of the zyemstvos, have arrived at 

 the conclusion that radical measures for preventing the calamities 

 caused by the incursions of these insects must be directed not so much 

 toward the destruction of the insects as toward the conversion of these 

 islands into cultivated lands. 



In the appearance of the grasshoppers in enormous numbers some 

 periodicity has long been observed. 



In the Taurida government some of the zyemstvos took up the com- 

 bat against the grasshoppers in 1877. The rules which are at present 

 obligatory in the contest in the whole province were elaborated bv the 

 provincial zyemstvo and confirmed by the Minister of the Interior. 

 The work is paid for according to a scale fixed by the district zyem- 

 stvos. For the performance of the work all persons of the lower 

 classes are required to present themselves (peasants, workingmen, and 

 the like, not excluding the women and children above 10 years of age). 

 Each relay of workmen can be held not longer than three days. The 

 council of the district zyemstvo elects special organizers for stated sec- 

 tions of the district, whose duty it is to watch the appearance of the 

 grasshoppers in the district, to study the extent of the area infested 

 with the eggs of the grasshoppers, to keep the district as well as the 

 provincial zyemstvo informed a])out their observations in this regard, 

 and to personally participate and superintend the work of destroying 

 the insects. In 1896 there were 17 such organizers in the Simpheropol 

 district, with a compensation of 3 rubles per day during the time of 

 fighting the grasshoppers. 



^rhe Bessaral)ia government began the contest in 1876 and stopped 

 it in 1887, since when the grasshoppers have not appeared. 



In the Kherson government the provincial z^^emstvo conducts the 

 tight against these insects as well as against others, and sussliks 

 {Spermojyhilus cltUlus)^ covering the expense by collecting a tax of 

 one-half cent per dyessyatina (2.7 acres). 



In the Voronyezh government the provincial zyemstvo in 1882, in 

 view of the fact that the grasshoppers deposited their eggs in the 

 autumn over an extended area, especially in the Novo-Khopyor district, 

 petitioned the Imperial (jovernment to defray the expenses of lighting 

 the grasshoppers from the general funds of the Empire, to appropriate 

 for this purpose 1,000,000 rubles, and to impose a natural tax. Mean- 

 while the Novo-Khopyor district zyemstvo was directed to urge the 

 land owners to plow up those places where the eggs were deposited. 

 The Minister of the Interior, however, refused to grant to the pro- 

 vincial zyemstvo the subsidy of the Imperial Government, but agreed 

 to loan that sian to the zyemstvo. In 1883 the grasshoppers made 



