﻿101 NINTH ANNUAL REPORT 



Experiments to test the Effects of Exposure to tlie Free Air. 



The eggs in the following series were obtained at Manhattan, 

 Kansas, in November, and all under similar conditions. 



Experiment iG. — A large number of egg-masses were thoroughly broken up and 

 the single eggs scattered over the surface of the ground out-doors early in December. 

 By the 23d of Pebruary all had perishtd, and most of them had collapsed and 

 shriveled. 



Experiment 27. — A large number of pods were partly broken up and exposed as in 

 Exp. 2(). On the lOlh of March the outer eggs 'were mostly dead and shrunken, but a 

 few of the protected ones were yet plump, the embryon well advanced and apparently 

 sound. 



Experiment SS. — A large number of vnibroken pods were exposed under similar 

 conditions as in the preceding Expts. By March 10th fully three-fourths of the eggs' 

 had perished. 



Experiment i'9.— Fifty egg-masses were kept iu-doors in an open mouthed bottle in 

 perfectly loose and dry earth from November 6th. Fully 8 per cent, of the eggs had 

 hatched by December 28th, when hatching ceased, and a subsequent examination 

 showed the rest to have shrunken and perished. 



It is very evident from the above experiment's that we can do 

 much more to destroy the eggs by bringing into requisition the uni- 

 versally utilizable air, than we can by the use of water. The break- 

 ing up of the mass and exposure of the individual eggs to the desicat- 

 ing effects of the atmosphere, effectually destroys them; and when to 

 this is added the well known fact that thus exposed they are more 

 liable to destruction by their numerous enemies, we see at once the 

 importance of this mode of coping with the evil. 



Experiments to test the Effects of lurying at different Depths^ and 



of pressing the Soil. 



The following series of experiments were made with eggs obtained 

 at Manhattan, Kansas, early in November, and which were in similar 

 condition to those in the first series. Large tin cylindrical boxes, 

 made of different depths, and varying from 4 to 8 inches in diameter 

 were used ; and in order to hasten the result they were kept in-doors 

 at the temperature already mentioned. The soil in all the boxes was 

 finely comminuted and kept in uniform and moderately moist condi- 

 tion. It was gently pressed with the fingers, so as to approach in 

 compactness the surface soil of a well cultivated garden. In each 

 instance the eggs were placed in the centre of the box. A large 

 number of eggs have been buried at different depths outdoors where 

 they are under natural conditions of soil pressure and tempera- 

 ture, and the experiments here recorded were made to anticipate the 

 results in the others, which will not be completed till long after this 

 Report is published. 



