18 INSECTS INJURIOUS IN 1902. 
Governor and the Director of the station, it was determined to 
plow this tract at the State expense and thus not only avert im- 
mediate loss but also reduce if possible the numbers of Grasshop- 
pers which would otherwise be on hand to do mischief next year. 
The most threatening tract (about 200 acres) was then plowed. 
In the neighborhood of Perham there are altogether about 600 
acres of this unused land. Wherever such is found it is a constant 
menace to farmers who are making every effort to keep this pest 
within bounds. It would be bad policy for the State to always 
plow these lands not used and I firmly believe that the only solu- 
tion to the Grasshopper question is the making of a law which will 
oblige land owners to plow stubble found to contain Grasshopper 
eggs in the fall or early in the spring. In every grasshopper in- 
fested locality visited this summer the Entomologist met with this 
request from the farmers. Such a law would put an end to the 
pernicious practice of the State plowing or furnishing free oil ex- 
cept in exceptional emergencies. Most farmers will gladly plow 
if nonresident speculators will do the same. 
A visit to Otter Tail district thirteen miles from Perham 
showed a condition entirely different from what prevails in the 
latter place. Here I found every acre in crops; no stubble land and 
consequently no Grasshoppers, disregarding the comparative few 
in grass along the roadsides. It is a matter worthy of note that 
the losses from locally hatched grasshoppers are confined largely to 
“pioneer districts,’ to the frontier of farming land as it were, 
where conditions are not settled, where property is changing hands 
or where the population is shifting and where there are very large 
tracts of land far from market, owned by individuals who either 
cannot or will not cultivate all their arable land. It is where these 
conditions prevail that the Lesser Migratory Locust (second only 
to the Rocky Mountain Locust in destructiveness) gets in its work 
and always will in favorable seasons unless compulsory plowing 
is resorted to. These are the conditions which prevail at Gen- 
tilly near Crookston, in Polk county, and more particularly in the 
Hill River district twelve miles northeast from McIntosh in the 
same county. At Gentilly on June 26th I found the Lesser Migra- 
tory Locust abundant and causing injury upon all well drained, 
sandy ridges where the eggs were not spoiled by wet weather last 
