229 



prolonged over such a long period of time, making it necessary to repeat 

 the burning ojjeration almost every day for a period of several weeks. 

 The expense of such repeated burnings would in most cases amount to 

 more than the corn crop was ^^ orth. 



At my suggestion Mr, W. P. Mooniaw made a test of the mixture of 

 bran, arsenic, and sugar, which had been used in California with such 

 success against various kinds of grasshopj)ers, but which Lad not, to 

 my knowledge, ever been tried against the present species. It consists 

 of six parts by weight of bran, to one each of arsenic and sugar. The 

 bran is jilaced in a barrel or other convenient receptacle and the 

 arsenic added and thoroughly stirred through the bran; the sugar is 

 next dissolved in cold water and added to the mixture and the whole 

 thoroughly stirred; water is then added until the mixture is wet in 

 every part, after which it is taken to the held and distributed in heaps 

 containing a tablespoonful each, or it may be sown broadcast, care 

 being taken not to x^ut it out where any livestock or barnyard fowls 

 have access to it. In the prcvsent instance it was placed in clover 

 and corn-fields and in an apple orchard, where both the winged and 

 wingless grasshoppers were present in large numbers. If was distrib- 

 uted rather early in the niorning, and shortly after it was placed upon 

 the ground numbers of the grasshoppers were attracted to and greed- 

 ily fed upon it. Not only were the wingless ones attracted, but the 

 winged ones as well, and these were observed coming from a distance 

 of several feet direct to the mixture, as if attracted to it by the sense 

 of smell. The arsenic is very slow in its efiect. A wingless individual 

 lived for about eight hours after having partaken of the mixture, while 

 a winged one lived several hours longer than this. It will thus haj)- 

 pen that only a comparatively small proportion of those killed by the 

 mixture ^\ill be found in its immediate neighborhood. Even the wing- 

 less ones will sometimes manage to travel a distance of seventy-five or 

 eighty feet before being overcome by the poison. The favorite resting 

 place of the grasshoppers was in or beneath the tall weeds, and under 

 one of these sometimes as many as thirty dead ones could be counted 

 the day after the mixture w^as distributed. 



The best time for using this mixture would have been shortly after 

 the wheat was harvested. By placing the mixture along the sides of 

 the wheat-fields adjoining the growing crops, the grasshoppers, in 

 migrating to the latter, would have found and been destroyed by the 

 poisoned mixture. The latter is comparatively inexpensive, and after 

 it has once been distributed in the fields requires no further attention, 

 as it will retain its poisonous quality and still be attractive to the 

 grasshoppers several weeks after being put out. 

 8359— No. 3 2 



