14 FARMERS’ BULLETIN 691. 
hens handled in the ordinary way, many grasshoppers were caught 
and the hens acquired such a taste for them that upon being returned 
to the barnyard they ranged far and near in search of insects. 
The Kansas Experiment Station at Garden City bought several 
hundred chicks in an effort to save their crops during the severe grass- 
hopper outbreak of 1913. A wooden framework, on low trucks, 
constructed of 2 by 4 material, was built and covered outside with 
poultry netting and inside with canvas. This portable chicken house 
was easily healed from place to place, and was considered the most 
effective means yet adopted in destroying grasshoppers. 
During 1913, near Garden City, rhubarb was attacked by grasshop- 
pers that were rapidly stripping the leaves. The gardener placed in 
separate coops near it three hens with a total of about 40 active 
chicks. A few days later the rhubarb was free from grasshoppers 
and the chicks were catching others in adjacent parts of the garden. 
UTILIZATION OF HOGS. 
Hogs of all ages become very fond of grasshoppers whenever they 
are allowed the run of infested land. They are reported as efficient 
destroyers of both grasshoppers and their eggs. A small lot in a 
field which had been left for alfalfa seed was fenced as pasture for 
a few hogs. Grasshoppers damaged the entire field except in the 
hog lot, where a good crop of seed was set. 
PROTECTING SUGAR BEETS, TRUCK CROPS, AND GARDENS. 
Land prepared for sugar beets is usually plowed more than 10 inches 
deep. This is often done late in the fall or early in the winter. 
Throughout the summer the growing beets require frequent cultiva- 
tion, which drives away grasshoppers that wish to lay eggs. Digging 
the beets in the fall stirs the surface soil so much that any egg cap- 
sules in it are injured or exposed. Only along the edges of fields 
and, in irrigated districts, on the banks of ditches is there any danger 
of eges being left undisturbed. 
Many truck and garden crops are grown on land that is plowed deep 
late in the fall or during the winter. They also require frequent 
summer cultivation and, with some, the ground is stirred by harvest- 
ing. Consequently there is not much danger of such fields being used 
te grasshoppers for egg-laying purposes. From the facts mentioned 
it is evident that grasshopper damage to sugar beets, truck crops, and 
gardens is the result of invasion from adjoining infested land. 
If many grasshoppers are present during August and September a 
search should be made to locate their eggs. Clumps of grass should 
be chopped out and torn to pieces. Here and there in suspected 
buffalo sod a square foot of ground should be examined to a depth 
of about 2 inches for eggs. Where the soil is more easily worked the 
