INJURIOUS INSECTS OF 1903. 



31 



A week later a new danger threatened this particular field. A quar- 

 ter section cornering on it had been sown also to wheat, and had been 

 abandoned by the owner to the 'hoppers hatched therein. They had 

 eaten it bare, and now, being half grown, had begun to migrate over to 

 our field. They were not old enough to fly, and travelled in short leaps, 

 and there were millions of them, all hungry. 



Fortunately they were discovered when the movement commenced, 

 and it was met by commencing a ditch at the corner, and extending it as 

 rapidly as possible to the north and east. We found that a ditch two feet 

 wide and one and a half feet deep was sufficient to stop them; very few 

 were able to cross it — the grand army went into it, and were utterly un- 

 able to rise out of it. In a couple of days they had nearly filled it, and 

 the raid was over. 



A good many fields were abandoned to the pests that summer, to be 

 totally destroyed, but some were saved, to yield a fair harvest. Our 

 square mile of wheat gave us 11,298 bushels, which was sold at 80c.; the 

 total expense of fighting the hoppers was between 30 and 40 cents per 

 acre. 



This year (1875) the grasshoppers, at maturity, generally left the 

 country without depositing eggs, and there has been no serious trouble 

 from them since; those appearing in later years were less in numbers, 

 easily handled, and created no panic. 



Fig. 10. — One of Nature's Hopper-Dozers. 



