14. INJURIOUS INSECTS OF I9Q09Q AND I9QIO. 
of a more stringent law—something like the grasshopper law of 
North Dakota, perhaps,—obliging large land-owners to bear the 
expense involved in fighting this insect. We are heartily in favor 
of such a law for this state. We want also to have, for the next 
two or three years, an expert in the field constantly, located at a 
central point in what we might call “the grasshopper district,” and 
not only trying various new methods available for the farmer, 
some of which we have in mind at present, but also going from 
place to place where needed by farmers, and instructing them how 
to properly apply the best known measures of protection. Such 
a man would be immensely useful to farmers in a stricken locality, 
beside being in a position, from a constant careful study of the sit- 
uation, to make valuable suggestions along new lines of control. 
Further, we have recommended to the Governor and the State 
Auditor the advisability of keeping upon the Auditor’s books a 
sum which does not revert, but is always available in times of 
crises, to meet emergencies along these lines. For a time there 
was such a fund, consisting of several thousand dollars, left over 
from early grasshopper days. This has reverted long since, and at 
present there is absolutely no fund to draw upon if we ever have a 
sudden and destructive visitation of grasshoppers. The writer has 
suggested that a fund of from $12,000 to $15,000 be kept upon 
the books, for emergency use only, and its expenditure properly 
safeguarded by a board or commission. This plan has met with 
the approvat of the State Auditor, who states that he sees no rea- 
son why such a bill would not receive the approval of the Legis- 
lature. 
In April of the present year (1910) a report was received, from 
a farmer living at Granite Falls, that the unusually warm weather 
in March had brought out the young grasshoppers, and that they 
had been killed by the freeze in April. This would have been good 
news if it had been actually the case in all arts of the state. Un- 
fortunately, grasshoppers were found hatching in large numbers 
early in May, when all danger of cold weather had passed; and 
our hopes, based on earlier reports, if we had such hopes, were 
doomed to disappointment; for, in the eight years and more we 
have served Minnesota, we have never had so much trouble and so 
much complaint as in 1910. Twenty or more afflicted farmers in 
Wilkin County were in correspondence with this division on ac- 
count of this trouble, and we have had men in the field assisting 
them, showing them how to construct and use hopperdozers. 
