OF WASHINGTON. 21 



work — put in dollars this looks bigger ($60,000). I pay dis- 

 trict officers £1 per day, and mule transport for same man 

 costs from ii-5 to £2-5. My head office staff consists of 5 

 men. Our great difficulty is lack of water. We have about 

 20 water carts in use, and it is often necessary to draw water 

 8 to 20 miles. 



Enclosed you will find a leaflet which gives a forecast, pre- 

 pared August 6, of voetgangers which would hatch after Octo- 

 ber I. You already know of my post card system of reports. 

 Developments show that I made slight errors in two places, 

 as I have indicated on the map. However, I think this good 

 enough for a first attempt. This gave me time to travel about 

 and give 47 lectures illustrated by lantern slides, and when the 

 beginning of our campaign came — thanks to our preparations 

 — things moved without a hitch, save in one instance. We 

 will not finish until about December 15, at which time I expect 

 that those locusts which have escaped will get away and fly 

 southwest, thus leaving the colony for a few months. This 

 infestation is the greatest in the memory of the oldest inhabit- 

 ants. Swarms is not a proper term; masses is more nearly 

 correct. Some of these swarms are from 2 to 7 miles long 

 and from 100 to 1500 yards wide. The whole force of rail- 

 way " gangers " (section hands) are at work killing the locusts 

 on the railways in order to prevent them from entirely stop- 

 ping the trains. The mail from the Cape was derailed by 

 locusts once, and in both the Cape and the Orange River Col- 

 ony it is the usual thing for trains to be late on this account. 



In fact the most conservative districts have been carried by 

 storm and are heartily in favor of having locust destruction 

 made compulsory. The interest His Excellency the High 

 Commissioner Lord Selbourne has taken in locust destruction 

 has helped greatly. Day after tomorrow I will take out a 

 large party of Government officials and prominent men by 

 special train to show them how a swarm of voetgangers is 

 destroyed. 



The only drawback to this work is that the Orange River 

 Colony and the Cape are not doing their duty in destroying 

 the locusts in their territories and hence we may be forced to 

 do the same next year as this. Some of our farmers are advo- 

 cating a duty on Cape products sufficient to carry on our 

 locust work and to compensate for their losses by the " fliers." 



I note that the Association of Economic Entomologists is 

 to have a symposium on Insect Legislation. I hope to do my 

 share by sending a note of what we are doing in the Trans- 

 vaal. After the locust campaign is over I hope to start work 

 in Silk Culture and also to carry on investigations regarding 

 Malaria and Mosquitoes. 



