﻿128 EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT 



The width and depth of the ditch is important, and as experience 

 differed somewhat I have been at pains to get the experience of a 

 large number of correspondents addressed by circular. Many suc- 

 cessfully used ditches 2 feet deep and 18 inches wide; a few made 

 them only 18x18 ; those who used water found 12x15 sufficient, while 

 the larger number used a ditch such as I have recommended, viz. : 

 2 feet deep by 2 feet wide, with perpendicular sides. At the winter 

 meeting of the Kansas State Horticultural Society, Dr. J. Stay man, of 

 Leavenworth, insisted that a ditch 3 feet wide had not prevented the 

 insects from crossing on his place. Thinking that his experience, so 

 different to that of the majority of his own people, might be accounted 

 for by the character of his soil and other circumstances, I got him to 

 promise to send me a detailed statement, and to give me. the similar 

 experience of others, which he asserted he could do; but I have not 

 heard from him since. Mr. Jas. Hanway, an intelligent correspondent 

 of the Kaiisas Farmer^ and who, at my request, has been to some 

 trouble to get the experience of Kansans on this point, writes that the 

 ditches generally made were from 18 to 20 inches wide, and about 12 

 .inches deep. Professor Thomas is of opinion, from what he has seen 

 in Colorado, that while a ditch such as I have recommended will pre- 

 vent the larva3 from crossing, " the pupae, though halting for a time^ 

 will soon make the leap." That they can do so, every one who has 

 had experience knows ; and so can the larva3 ; but the fact remains^ 

 as I had abundant evidence last Spring, that in practice they seldom 

 do when hatching out in our part of the country, and that even when 

 the majority are in the pupa state, the 2 foot ditch is still quite effect- 

 ual. Even the larger winged Acridii and CEdipoda^ tumble into such 

 a ditch, and seldom get out again. I would remark in this connection^ 

 also, that a ditch 3 leet wide, unless correspondingly deep, will be 

 more apt to permit the insects to escape, when once in, than a nar- 

 rower one. In bopping, the more perpendicular the direction the in- 

 sects must take the shorter will be the distance reached. Whenever 

 our farmers are again troubled with the unfledged myriads, the 2-foot 

 ditch, used in time, will be found all sufficient. 



Next to ditching the use of nets or seines, or converging strips of 

 calico or any other material, made after the plan of a quail net, proved 

 most satisfactory. By digging a pit, or boring a post augur hole, 3 or 

 4 feet deep, and then staking the two wings so that they converge to- 

 ward it, large numbers of the locusts may be driven into the pit after 

 the dew is off the ground. By changing the position of this trap^ 

 much good can be done when the insects are yet small and huddled 

 in schools ; but all modes of bagging, netting and burning become 



