﻿182 SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT 



per kilogram, or other measure, is always offered by the government 

 whenever agriculturists suffer from invasions. When we consider the 

 number of persons rendered destitute in Kansas, Minnesota and Ne- 

 braska, by the invasions of 1874, and the danger of immense damage 

 in 1875, from the issue from the eggs which in many places fill the 

 ground, it is surprising that the Legislatures of those States did not 

 give the inhabitants of the ravaged counties at once the means of 

 warding off misery and suffering, and guarding against future destruc- 

 tion, by offering a liberal price per bushel for locust eggs. Let us- 

 hope that, whenever such a calamity befalls those States again, some- 

 thing of this kind will be done. 



Wherever the eggs were laid last Fall, I advised our farmers, 

 where it was practicable, to plow deeply, so as to turn them under 

 and bury them as far as possible. This destroys them either entirely 

 or in great part, and if a few survive, the young hatch so late the 

 next season, that their power for harm is much lessened; and the 

 horses, also, in the ravaged districts, are in much better condition to 

 plow in the Fall than they are likely to be in the following Springs 

 Care should be had not to bring the eggs turned under in Autum, tO' 

 the surface again, by plowing the same land the following Spring ; for,, 

 thus brought to the surface, the eggs would undoubtedly hatch. 



When irrigation is practicable, as it is in some of the ravaged 

 parts of Colorado, let the ground be thoroughly inundated for a few 

 days, and the eggs will all lose vitality and rot. I have already shown 

 that the eggs are laid, by preference, on the high and dry knolls and 

 ridges, and never in low, moist ground; and experiments prove how 

 soon they succumb to excess of moisture. 



Just as excessive moisture is fatal to the eggs, no is excessive dry- 

 ness, or direct exposure to the atmosphere, so that they receive alter- 

 nately the direct rays of the sun and the rains and dews. Conse- 

 quently, harrowing the ground where these eggs are laid, so as to> 

 break up the glutinous masses and expose the eggs to the influences 

 mentioned, and to the more easy detection of birds, is to be recom- 

 mended. Of course none of these measures, except the first, or col- 

 lecting the eggs, are applicable on a large scale, except where the 

 country is thickly settled and cultivated fields are abundant. 

 Wherever hogs and cattle can be turned into fields where the eggs^ 

 abound, most of these will be destroyed by the rooting and tramping. 



3d — Next to the destruction of the eggs, the destruction of the^ 

 young, wingless locusts, is most within man's power. Thus, much, 

 good can be accomplished by the use of a heavy roller, when the 



