FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 205 



eggs all this fall and to date, and I am fully satisfied they are a good 

 ration for fattening, as they eat them up clean." 



WORK WITH THE COUNTY AGENTS 

 In organizing the control work we cooperated mainly with the 

 county agricultural agents. These men were familiar with the field 

 conditions and with the influential farmers and but for tlie extension 

 organization we could not have accomplished our work. In the 

 course of our experience it developed that the natural and effective 

 way to accomplish what we were after was to leave the county 

 agents to call all meetings, organize them, and be mainly responsible 

 for their success. Representatives from this office assumed merely 

 an. advisory responsibility, delivering lectures and making demon- 

 strations whenever desired and securing information regarding 

 sources of arsenic and other necessary ingredients for the poison 

 formula. 



ORGANIZATION OF THE FARMERS 



The procedure in organizing control eft'orts among the farmers 

 was generally to first enter the district and get some information 

 regarding existing conditions, the abundance of grasshoppers, the 

 amount of damage being done, and other points of importance, 

 locally, for use in the work. The county agent then called a meeting 

 of the citizens which was addressed by himself and by the entomolo- 

 gist. The habits of grasshoppers, conditions of the locality so far 

 as we knew them, methods of control, together with a review of the 

 experience in other localities, were discussed and the farmers were 

 organized and asked to form committees. Quite often the commit- 

 tees were made up in part of people from town and in part of farmers 

 for it was recognized that the interests of the town were affected as 

 well as those of the country. Committees for soliciting and for 

 purchasing were appointed and dates for further meetings were 

 fixed. In some instances one committee managed the whole cam- 

 paign for the community. Dates were appointed when the farmers 

 came together and mixed the poisoned bait. In some instances the 

 poisoned ingredients were delivered before the meeting and in some 

 cases they were brought as the people came to the meeting. The 

 committees sold the poison to the farmers, who took it home and 

 spread it immediately. 



One of these ''mixing bees" was held on the ri\ er bank at Irvine 



