TWENTY-SEVENTH REPORT OF STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 17 



This increase in savings resulted from factors such as the 

 small hatch of grasshoppers, the better growing conditions which 

 may have encouraged better application of the control methods, 

 the more vigorous crops which were able to withstand injury 

 better than in previous seasons, and the allotment of more su- 

 pervisors to the State by the Federal Government through the 

 Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine. 



MORMON CRICKET CONTROL, 



Mormon Cricket Situation for 1937-1938 



for 1937.— The Mormon cricket situation in Montana during 

 1937 was the most serious ever experienced in this State, and 

 probably any other. Forty-five per cent of the infested acreage 

 reported for the nation was in Montana. The infestation affected 

 976,563 cultivated acres and 6,511,132 acres of range, represent- 

 ing an increase of 59.9 per cent over 1936. The first large-scale 

 control program against these insects was inaugurated in 1937 

 through the allocation of W. P. A. funds which were admin- 

 istered generally by the Bureau of Entomology, the U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture, and in Montana by the State Entom- 

 ologist. Large infestations occurred throughout the southern part 

 of the State from Park to Powder River counties. Others ap- 

 peared in practically all of the mountains east of the divide, 

 and a critical condition developed west of the divide in Lake 

 and Sanders counties. It is doubtful if a single county in the 

 State was without some cricket population in 1937. 



This campaign was predominantly successful. While the in- 

 festation increased 59.9 per cent and involved much more crop 

 land, the injury sustained increased only 13.8 per cent over the 

 preceding year. The savings amounted to $5,166,098. This figure 

 plus the loss should give the probable loss which would have 

 been sustained had there been no control campaign, or a loss for 

 the State of $5,666,640. The savings plus the losses in 1936 

 probably amounted to around $500,000. When these two figures 

 are compared, the increase in jeopardized crop acreage is seen to 

 be immense. 



Seventeen counties participated in the 1937 campaign: Big 

 Horn, Carbon, Cascade, Chouteau, Fergus, Golden Valley, Judith 

 Basin, Lake, Lewis and Clark, Liberty, Meagher, Park, Sanders, 



