REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 197 
SESSIONAL PAPER No. 8a 
address was delivered by Mr. McKellar, who explained what steps had been taken by 
the Honourable Thomas Greenway with a view to assist the farmers to avoid loss by 
locusts, which were so abundant in 1898 as to have caused considerable anxiety, and, 
as none of the observers who had been on the lookout for the egg-laying females last 
autumn had succeeded in observing any, the hope had been expressed that there would 
be no locusts this year. The department, however, feared that this was too hopeful a 
view of the matter, and, on account of the gravity of the case, the Minister had 
requested the Dominion Entomologist and the State Entomologist of Minnesota to visit 
the district and examine whether there was any probability of an outbreak of locusts in 
1899. Reports had been received that the insects had begun to appear south of 
Boissevain and Deloraine, and, although the date at that time was three weeks later 
than when the locusts had appeared last year, it was considered wiser to have the 
matter investigated carefully, so that, if locusts were found, farmers might be visited 
and urged to use the methods of destroying the insects which had been found useful 
elsewhere. 
I then followed with a statement of all that was known of the Manitoba occur- 
rences of the Rocky Mountain Locust, the extent of the losses which might accrue if 
farmers did not adopt the simple and inexpensive means of controlling them which had 
been advised. Prof. Lugger explained in a lucid manner the life hjstory of this locust, 
which he illustrated with some large and original charts and gave the results of his long 
experience in fighting locusts in Minnesota and Dakota. The measures advised were 
practically those which had already been made known widely through newspapers, 
agricultural journals and government reports, and were briefly as follows :—The plough- 
ing down in autumn and spring of all stubble in the districts where locusts had been 
seen, the ploughing down of the young locusts with the stubble as soon as possible 
after they hatched, beginning at the outsides of fields and working towards the centre ; 
wherever the young had hatched and made considered growth before the stubble was 
ploughed down, the use of the hopper-dozers, and on restricted areas the poisoning of 
the insects with arsenizal mixtures. 
Mr. Charles Braithwaite, the Provincial Weed Inspector, was also present and spoke 
at this meeting ; he also accompanied us through the rest of our investigation, in which 
he was of much assistance. 
On the morning of the 15th we started 
early and drove down to the beautiful farm 
of Mr. A. 8. Barton, and thence to Mr. 
Frank Thompson’s, where the exact local- 
ities could be pointed out in which the 
locusts had occurred the previous year. No 
trace of the insects or their eggs was found; 
indeed, there was, both here and during a 
25-mile drive to Deloraine, a most remark- 
able absence of all kinds of locusts or 
‘grasshoppers,’ the name by which they are 
generally spoken of in the West. On reach- 
ing Deloraine, we were met by Mr. John 
hi —— - Renton, of that place, and Mr. Thompson, 
Fig. 23.—Meassrs. Fletcher, Lugger and McKellar of Waskada, who told us that hoppers had 
finding locusts’ eggs. been seen on the hatching grounds six miles 
south of Deloraine, where I had found them last year. Accordingly, we drove to these 
farms, where they had been most abundant, and made a thorough search for the eggs. 
We soon saw that young locusts were hatching in large numbers, some were just emerg- 
ing from the eggs, and some unhatched ; many egg-pods also were empty, but showed 
that the eggs had been destroyed by parasites. The egg-pods were about an inch below 
the surface, mostly on elevated spots, and on the sunny side cf furrows on these elevated 
spots. This date of hatching (June 15) was fully three weeks later than that at which 
the young grasshoppers must have hatched last year, for I found fully matured insects on 
July 4, 1898. . This was due to the late wet spring, a circumstance which also was of 
great benefit to farmers by making it easier for them to control weeds. 
