3 34 LOCUST. 



fine when they begin to fly; and ^xperience has 

 taught us here in Transylvania, that it would have 

 been of great service to have diligently sought 

 out the' places where the females lodged; for no- 

 thing was more easy than carefully to visit those 

 places in March and April, and to destroy their 

 eggs or little worms with sticks or briars; or if 

 they were not to be beat out of the bushes, dung- 

 hills, or heaps of straw, to set fire to them; and 

 this method would have been very easy, conveni- 

 ent, and successful, as it has been in other places; 

 but in the summer, when they have marched out 

 of their spring-quarters, and have invaded the corn- 

 fields, &c. it is almost impossible to extirpate them 

 without thoroughly threshing the whole piece of 

 land that harbours them with sticks or flails; and 

 thus crushing the locust with the. produce of the 

 land. Finally, when the corn is ripe or nearly so, 

 we have found, to our great loss, that there is no 

 other method of getting rid of them, or even of 

 diminishing their numbers, but to surround the 

 piece of ground -with a multitude of people, who 

 might fright them away with bells, brass vessels, 

 and all other sorts of noise. But even this method 

 will not succeed till the sun is pretty high, so as 

 to dry the corn from the dew; for otherwise they 

 will either stick to the stalks, or lie hid under the 

 grass; but when they happen to be driven to a 

 waste piece of ground, they are to be beat with 

 sticks or briars; and if they gather together in 

 heaps, straw or litter may be thrown over them 

 and set on fire. Now this method seems rather 



