404 



NA TURE 



\_Feb. 27, 1890 



alike, the young wingless locusts, on emerging from the eggs in 

 the spring or summer, feed voraciously and grow rapidly for two 

 or three months, during which period they moult at intervals, 

 finally developing wings and becoming adult. The adult insects 

 fly about in swarms, which settle from time to time and devour 

 the crops. The damage done by locusts is thus occasioned in 

 the first instance by the young wingless insects, and afterwards 

 by the winged individuals into which the young are transformed 

 after a couple of months of steady feeding. 



In R tjputana and the Punjab in 1869 the flights were said to 

 have come chiefly from the vast tract of sand hills {Teeiws) be- 

 tween the Runn of Kutch and Bhawulpore, and partly from the 

 Suliman Range in Afghanistan. Locusts wen reported as 

 usually to be found in the autumn in the Teeburs, and it is 

 thought that this tract is probably a permanent breeding-ground. 

 The whole question, however, of the permanent breeding- grounds 

 of these locusts is one that requi' es further investigation. The 

 winged flights appeared throughout Central Rajputana in the 

 latter part of the hot weather, and laid eggs which hatched as 

 the rains set in ; the old locusts dying after they had deposited 

 their egg-<. P'rom these eggs were hatched young locusts which be- 

 came full grown and acquired wings in August and September. 

 The eggs laid by the original flights at the end of the hot 

 weather were distributed throughimt the whole of Central 

 Rajputana, and a vast amount of injury was done, the crops 

 being damaged, in the first instance, by the young locusts before 

 they acquired wings, and afterwards by the winged swarms which 

 flew about the country and settled at intervals to eat what had 

 escaped the ravages of the young wingless locusts. 



In the Punjab, flights of locusts, from the Suliman Range, 

 Afghanistan, appeared in the western border, in the end of 

 April and in May. Eggs and young locusts were also found 

 about this time near the hills in the sandy tracts of the same 

 district. The flights seem generally to have moved from west 

 to east, and by July to have spread themselves throughout the 

 Punjab ; but the laying of eggs and the hatching out of young 

 went on, at least in the south-eist, throughout August and 

 September. 



In Bombay, locusts were noticed in May and June 1882, in 

 the south-we^t of the Presidency ; but they attracted little atten- 

 tion, such swarms being annual visitors of th- Kanarese forests, 

 and neither in Kanara nor in Dharwar did they cau>e any 

 material injury. With the setting in of the south-west monsoon, 

 however, they spread in flights over the Presidency to the north 

 and north-east, and early in the rains proceeded to lay their eggs 

 and die. These eggs hatched in the end of July and beginning 

 of August, and the young locusts did a large amount of damage, 

 over a wide area, through the mouths of August and September. 

 In the early part of October, with the setting in of the north- 

 east monsoon, the young locusts, which had by this time acquired 

 wings, took flight, and travelled with the prevailing wind in a 

 south-westerly direction, doing some injury in the Poona Col- 

 lectorate as they passeil. They then struck the Western Ghats, 

 and spread slowly over the Konkan in November, and thence 

 travelled into the Native States of Sawantvadi and the Kanara 

 district. During the remainder of the cold season and the 

 following hot weather (December 1882, to the end of M ly 1883), 

 the flights clung to the Ghats, occasionally venturing inland into 

 Belgau n, Dharwar, the Kolhapur State, and Satara, and devour- 

 ing the spring crops in the Coast Dis'ricts, but ordinarily keeping 

 in the vicmity of the hill ranges. With the commencement of 

 the south-west monsoon, in the latter part of May 1883, the 

 flights began to move in a north-easterly direction, as they had 

 done the preceding yea--, but in larger numbers. 



At the commencement of the rains they began to alight in vast 

 numbers over an immense tract of country, comprising six Deccan 

 CoUectorates and three Coast Collectorates. They deposited 

 their eggs and died ; and early in August the young locusts 

 hatched out in countless numbers, but were apparently more 

 backward, and possessed of less strength and stamina than were 

 those of the previous year. The unusually heavy rainfall killed 

 vast numbers of them in some parts of the country, and else- 

 where the insects seemed stunted and feeble, and grew but 

 slowly. They were destroyed in vast numbers by the vigorous 

 measures initiated by (jovernment officers, and were also said to 

 be diseased and attacked by worms and other parasites. As late 

 as November, the mass of the young locusts appeared still unable 

 to fly, and made no general move, as they had done the year 

 before, towards their permanent home in the south-west. The 

 invasion was in fact at an end, and though swarms appeared in 



Sawantwadi in 1883-84, no further injury of a serious nature 

 seems to have occurred. 



The injury occasioned to the rain crops by the locusts was very 

 considerable, over a great portion of the Deccan and Konkan, 

 both in 1882 and 1883. But it was found, at the end of the 

 invasion, that abundance of the cold weather crops had com- 

 pensated to so great an extent for the injury done to the rain 

 crops, that, on the whole, no very widespread suffering had 

 arisen. 



In 1878, when the Madras Presidency was invaded, the young 

 locusts began to appear in January, and were found in great 

 numbers in different districts from then on till September and 

 October, the earlier swarms being found in the west and south 

 of the Presidency, and the later ones in the north and east. 

 Winged locusts were first observed, in the end of March and 

 beginning of April, in the hills to the south-west (Wynaad and 

 Nilgiri), where they may be supposed to breed permanently. 

 Thence, aided by the south-west monsoon, they gradually worked 

 their way over the Presidency to the east and north, finally 

 disappearing about November and December. 



The information hitherto obtained hardly justifies any very 

 decided conclusion as to the life history of the locust. Rut it 

 may be noticed that locusts were observed pairing in the Salem 

 District, in the latter part of June, and also that the young 

 locusts, which were found, in the early part of May, in the 

 Udamalpet Taluk, were supposed to be the offspring of the 

 large flights of winged locusts which had appeared in the pre- 

 ceding February in the same taluk. The connection between 

 the autumn broods of locusts and those which appeared in the 

 early part of the year has not been made out satisfactorily. 



Mr. Cotes ends his paper with an account of the chief 

 measures which have at different times been adopted in India 

 against locusts, pointing out that, the locust of North- We-;t India 

 being distinct from that of South- West India, measures found 

 useful in one invasion are not necessarily applicable in another. 



FIELD EXPERIMENTS ON WHEAT IN 

 ITAL Y> 



pROF. GIGLIOLI, of the Agricultural College at Portici, a 

 ^ graduate of the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, 

 has given to the Association of Proprietors and Farmers of 

 Naples a voluminous and most carefully compiled Report on 

 the results of the first year's experiments on wheat-growing at the 

 experimental field of Suessola, about six kilometres fom Acerra. 

 The field is on the estate of Count Francesco Spinelli, who 

 generously lends it to the Association for experimental purposes. 

 The district was celebrated in olden time for its fertility, but 

 was afterwards long neglected on account of its marshy nature, 

 and the land became sour and productive of disease. Now, 

 again, drainage and improved cultivation have changed these 

 marshes into some of the best land of a fertile district. The 

 soil of the experimental field is easily worked, friable, and bears 

 a good natural vegetation ; no analysis of it, however, is 

 furnished. Giglioli points out that it is in too high condition at 

 present for comparative manuring experiments, but adrnirably 

 suited for comparing different varieties of corn and different 

 methods of sowing and cultivation, as by dibbling and the Lois- 

 Weedon system. 



There are in all 102 plots devoted to trying the effects of 

 different manures, each plot being about 43 square metres ; 18 

 unmanured plots of a similar size devoted to diliferent varieties 

 of wheat ; and 3 plots, each about twice the above-mentioned 

 size, used for different methods of seeding and cultivation. 

 Paths were made round each plot, the paths being at rather a 

 lower level than the plots themselves The author discusses 

 the question of large and small plots, but concluded that under 

 the conditions obtaining, small plots were the best for use here. 



On the 102 manured plots, Scholey squarehead wheat was 

 sown, with a great variety ot' manures — organic, nitrogenous, 

 phosphatic, and potassic ; but it was afterwards found this 

 variety of wheat was, unfortunately, not well suited to the 

 climate and to the general purpose of these experiments. 



The 18 varieties experimented with, on the second series, in- 

 cluded several well-known English varieties, such as Hallett f 

 pedigree white and red wheats, Chiddam, golden drop, Hunter ^ 

 ' ■• Resultati del Primo Anno di Esperimento sulle Varieta e sui Concim 

 del Frumento al Campo Sperimentale di Suessola nell" ^Anno Agrari' 

 1887-88." I'y Italo Giglioli. Pp. 508. (Naples, 1889.) 



