﻿138 EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT 



in these reports, such a course was not the best, but one of the very 

 poorest, so far as the object had in view was concerned. There is 

 scarcely any possibility of the insect being imported in barreled po- 

 tatoes, but there is danger of its importation in other ways. In like 

 manner, Algiers, Italy and other south European countries have, dur- 

 ing the past year, passed laws with a view of keeping out the Phyllox- 

 era, whic^ laws, by being extreme, are calculated to do harm rather 

 than good, and are founded on insufficient knowledge of the insect's 

 habits. 



Last Summer some counties in Minnesota, and particularly Le 

 Sueur, Todd, Meeker, Brown, Sibley and Nicollett, offered bounties 

 for the catching and destroying of locusts. The laws had the effect to 

 measurably clean out the insects. The Kansas Legislature, at its late 

 session, also, passed a bill for the destruction of locusts. The bill, 

 though an important step in the right direction, is yet, to my mind> 

 defective in one or two vital particulars. It provides that a bounty 

 shall be paid out of the county treasury, of five dollars for the collec- 

 tion and destruction of every bushel of locust eggs, and sixty cents 

 for the collection and destruction of every bushel of unfledged locusts. 

 The original bill, introduced by Senator Halderman, made a discrimi- 

 nation as to the time of destruction of the unfledged locusts; and I 

 cannot think that the change made in committee was an improvement. 

 As several other Western States will doubtless be led to pass similar 

 acts for protection against locust ravages, and as I sincerely hope that 

 our own Legislature will do so next Winter, I will briefly state what I 

 conceive should be the essential features of any act having that ob- 

 ject. 



1. The bounty should be paid out of the State and not the County Treasury. When 

 any State or portion of a State is afflicted by a locust visitation, the people of the State 

 at large should bear the burden. By a judicious State bounty system that would avert 

 future calamity in any threatened district, the more prosperous portion of the com- 

 munity is made to contribute to the relief of the afflicted, and the whole community in 

 reality gains by the operation, 



2. The bounty should be immediately available to those ea?'?iing it. When distress 

 and want stare the people of a locust-stricken district in the face, those who work for 

 a bounty should be able to obtain it with as little delay as possible. This result can, 

 perhaps, best be attained by empowering the Township Trustee, or the Street Commis- 

 sioner, to receive and measure the eggs or young insects, and lo issue certificates set- 

 ting forth the number of bushels destroyed — the certificates to be filed with the County 

 Clerk, who should issue to the claimant another certificate, setting forth the name and 

 residence of the holder, and the number of bushels of eggs and young locusts collected 

 and destroyed by him. This last certificate should be taken and received by the Col- 

 lector of the Revenue of the county in which the same was given, and such collector 

 should pay the holder thei-eof the sum called for under the act, and be allowed pay 

 out of the State treasury for the same. 



