﻿OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 141 



" Hogs and poultry of every description delight to feed on the 

 yonng hoppers and will flourish where these abound when nothing^ 

 else does. It will be well, in the event of a future invasion, for the 

 people in the invaded districts to provide themselves with as large a 

 quantity as possible of this stock. Where no general and systematic 

 eiforts were made to destroy either the eggs or the young locusts, and 

 it is found that, as Spring opens, these young hatch out in threatening 

 numbers, the intelligent farmer will delay the planting of everything 

 that cannot be protected by ditching, until the very last moment, or 

 till toward the end of June — using his team and time solely in the 

 preparation of his land. In this way he will not only save his seed 

 and the labor of planting, and, perhaps, replanting, but he will mate- 

 rially assist in weakening the devouring armies. Men planted last 

 Spring, and worked with a will and energy born of necessity, only to 

 see their crops finally taken, their seed gone, and their teams and 

 themselves worn out. The locusts finally destroyed every green thing, 

 until, finding nothing more, they began to fall upon each other and to- 

 perish. This critical period in their history would have been brought 

 about much earlier if they had not had the cultivated crops to feed 

 upon ; and if by concert of action this system of non-planting could 

 at first have been adopted over large areas, the insects would 

 have been much sooner starved out and obliged to congregate in the 

 pastures, prairies and timber. Moreover, the time required for early 

 planting and cultivation, if devoted to destroying the insects after 

 the bulk of them hatch out toward the end of April, would virtually 

 annihilate them. The multiplication of any species of animal beyond 

 the power of the country to support it, inevitably proves the destruc- 

 tion of that species unless it is able to migrate. Let fifty batches of 

 Canker-worm eggs hatch out on a single, somewhat isolated apple 

 tree, and not one worm will survive long enough to mature. The 

 leaves of the tree will be devoured before the worms are half grown, 

 and the latter must then inevitably perish ; whereas, if only a dozen 

 batches of eggs had hatched on that tree, the worms might all have 

 lived and matured. In the same way the young locusts inevitably 

 perish whenever they are so numerous as to devour every green thing 

 before they become fledged; and under certain circumstances, the 

 sooner such a condition of things is brought about the better." The 

 greatest generals and mightiest armies must yield to starvation ! 



Too much stress cannot be laid on the advantage of cooperation 

 and concert of action, to accomplish which ought not to be difiicult, 

 with our present Grange system. One of my correspondents, Mr. Jas. 

 E. Gladish, of Aulsville, Lafayette Co., suggests that, to insure concert 



