160 



iug in winter-time or early spring is the most effectual means of pre- 

 venting grasshopper injury the coming summer ; but this recommen- 

 dation has rarely been carried out on a co-operative scale. In the grass- 

 hopper-infested section of Minnesota, however, Professor Lugger has 

 shown the present year what can be accomplished by timely and ener- 

 getic CO operation. 



In the fall of ]888 it was ascertained that in the iufes'.ed region of 

 Otter Tail County enough eggs had been deposited by late swarms of 

 locusts to seriously endanger the crop of 1889. It was found that the 

 eggs were preferably laid in stubble-fields abandoned by their owners, 

 and also in certain spots in the timothy fields and pasture lands. In 

 winter-time the governor and State legislature were appealed to, money 

 was promptly appropriated and rendered available immediately, and 

 competent persons appointed to superintend operations, which were ex- 

 ecuted in early spring with energy and circumspection. At first the 

 larger of the abandoned stubble-fields in the immediate vicinity of cul- 

 tivated fields were plowed, and then the worst infested places in the 

 timothy fields and pastures. The whole area thus plowed in this sin- 

 gle county, at the expense of the State, embraced no less than 0,361 

 acres. The farmei s in the mean time plowed the fields intended for the 

 use of corn, and largely assisted the State authorities in plowing at 

 their own expense the smaller fields which were ascertained to contain 

 a dangerous number of eggs. 



The success of this operation was complete. Not a single grasshopper 

 egg hatched on the plowed fields wherever the plowing was done care- 

 fully and to a sufficient depth. When, in the month of May, the grass- 

 hoppers hatched on the timothy fields, the farmers, knowing that there 

 was now no danger of an invasion of grasshoppers from the neglected 

 or abandoned fields in their vicinity, willingly set to work to assist the 

 authorities in the warfare against the young locusts. A large number 

 of " hopper dozers" (coal-oil pans*), previously prepared, were at hand, 

 and were operated on a large scale. Burning stubble wherever jiracti- 

 cable, and, in one instance, a judicious use of London purple, was also 

 resorted to. 



"About the middle of June," says Professor Lugger, "it became quite 

 plain that the crops were saved, and that most of the locusts had been 

 killed." 



This gratifying result was obtained at a comparatively trifling ex- 

 pense, and we congratulate Professor Lugger on the success of his 

 efforts in this direction. 



THE WEEPING-TREE MYSTERY. 



Prof. Herbert Osborn has called our attention to an article in the 

 Dallas (Texas) Morning News of October 9, in which a very well written 



* First described and recommended in Riley's " The Locust Plague in the United 



States." 



