182 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



numbers and were destroyed by the straw being set on fire after nightfall. This was 

 repeated four nights running, and myriads were thus killed before they had spread far 

 from their hatching grounds or had done any appreciable harm. Had Mr. Scott's 

 neighbours followed his advice and example, there is no doubt that the loss would have 

 been much less than was the case in that district last summer. 



The area over which the Rocky Mountain Locust occurred in Manitoba this year 

 was a narrow strip only a few miles in width, lying to the south of Deloraine and 

 Boissevain, and running along the northern slope of the Turtle Mountains. It is 

 probable that this locust breeds regularly every year in parts of the Turtle Mountains, 

 but it is many years since it spread from these breeding grounds north into Manitoba. 

 It has, however, shown only too well in previous years that it is able to breed and 

 multiply on our prairie lands when once established there. As, therefore, judging from 

 the experience of the last twenty years, it is unlikely that fresh swarms will for some 

 time again spread from their permanent breeding grounds, it is of the utmost importance 

 that everybody in the infested region should do everything possible to help in exter- 

 minating this formidable foe. This is particularly the case in the present instance, 

 because if all will work together complete extermination should be a matter of compa- 

 rative ease. The life habits of the insect are well understood, and the experience of 

 farmers living in regions where it occurs much oftener than with us, shows that by 

 making a very small change in the ordinary methods of working their farms, and at no 

 very large extra expense, this dire enemy can be practically wiped out, even where eggs 

 have been laid in enormous numbers. 



WHAT TO DO. 



It is conceded by all that the best remedy is the ploughing down of the eggs so 

 deep — five or six inches is sufficient — that when the young locusts hatch in spring they 

 may not be able to work their way up to the surface. The important things, then, for 

 Manitoban farmers to do now are to discover where eggs have been laid on their farms 

 and to see to it that every rod of this land is ploughed either this autumn or next 

 spring before the young locusts emerge and move off into the crops. 



WHERE THE EGGS ARE LAID. 



The places where the mother insects lay their eggs can be discovered only by 

 seeing them at work, or by examining the soil carefully for the egg-pods. The time 

 required for boring the hole and laying the complement of eggs is three or four hours. 



The appearance of the insect itself, the 

 pods and the separate eggs are well 

 shown of natural size in Dr. Riley's 

 excellent figure herewith. 



The female locust lays her eggs in the 

 ground, about an inch beneath the sur- 

 face, in small pod-like masses, as shown, 

 in the figure. The egg-pod consists of 

 a coating of a waterproof mucous ma- 

 terial, which is deposited at the same 

 time as the eggs. There are in each 

 pod about 30 eggs, and each female lays 

 about three pods during the autumn. 

 There is only one brood in a season, the 

 winter being passed in the egg. When 

 the young locusts hatch, they emerge 

 Fig. 11. -Locusts laying their eg?:^. through the upper end of the egg-pod. 



In Manitoba last season the young hop- 

 pers were noticed about the 1st of June, but they probably hatched earlv in May, 

 because it takes seven or eight weeks for the insects to attain full growth, and winged' 

 hoppers were abundant by July 8th at Deloraine. 



