

388 INSECTS. 



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 multi- 

 tude of people, who might fright them away with bells, brass ves- 

 sels, 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 to lessen 

 their numbers than totally destroy them ; for many of them lurk 

 under the grass or thick corn, and in the fissures of the ground 

 from the sun's heat : wherefore it is requisite to repeat this opera- 

 tion several times, in order to diminish their numbers, and conse- 

 quently the damage done by them. It will likewise be of use, 

 where a large troop of them has pitched, to dig a long trench, of 

 an ell width and depth, and place several persons along its edges, 

 provided with brooms and such-like things, while another numer- 

 ous set of people form a semicircle that takes in both ends of the 

 trench, and encompasses the locusts ; and, by making the noise 

 above-mentioned, drive them into the trench, out of which if they 

 attempt to escape, those on the edges are to sweep them back, aud 

 then crush them with their brooms and stakes, and bury them by 

 throwing in the earth again. But when they have begun to fly, 

 there should be horsemen upon the watch in the fields; who, upon 

 any appearance of the swarm taking wing, should immediately 

 alarm the neighbourhood by a certain signal, that they might come 

 and fright them from their lands by all sorts of noise ; and if tired 

 with flying, they happen to pitch on a waste piece of land, it will 

 be very easy to kill them with sticks and brooms in the evening or 

 early in the morning, while they are wet with the dew j or any 

 time of the day in rainy weather, for then they are not able to fly. 

 I have already taken notice that, if the weather be cold or wet in 

 autumn, they generally hide themselves in secret places, where 

 they lay their eggs, and then die : therefore great care should be 

 taken at this time, when the ground is freed of its crop, to destroy 

 them before they lay their eggs. In this month of September, 

 1748, we received certain intelligence that several swarms of lo- 



