72 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETABLES 



the grasshoppers can be controlled by several artificial methods. 

 The remedies that have proved most efficient are plowing under 

 the eggs before these have had time to hatch, and the capture 

 by means of hopper-dozers of the unfledged locusts, as well 

 as many of those which have become winged. These are shallow 

 sheet-iron pans in which are placed tar or coal-oil tar or kero- 

 sene oil, and which may be drawn or pushed by hand over the 

 ground or by horses, in such a manner that the hoppers will 

 leap into the pans and be killed by coming into contact with 

 the tar or oil. Hopper-dozers are shown in figures 2iy and 210. 



Other remedies of great value in the prevention of injury to 

 our cultivated crops are the bran-arsenic mixture and poisoned 

 horse droppings. Directions for preparing the former have 

 been given on page 54. 



Poisoned horse droppings consist of i part of Paris green 

 mixed thoroughly in 60 parts of fresh horse droppings, 2 pounds 

 of salt to half a barrel of mixture being added after being dis- 

 solved in water. This is placed in half barrels and drawn on 

 carts to the edge of the infested field or one likely to be invaded. 

 The mixture is then scattered broadcast along the edge of the 

 crop, or wherever needed, by means of a trowel or wooden 

 paddle. The locusts are attracted to it and are killed in large 

 numbers by eating the poison. Although this mixture is "sure 

 death," it sometimes requires from two to five days for it to 

 kill the locusts. 



Turkeys are of great value in freeing orchards and vine- 

 yards of locusts, and they may be employed in other fields for 

 the same purpose. In one case a flock of 766 turkeys were kept 

 at work in the destruction of grasshoppers. The turkeys have 

 to be watched, as they sometimes vary their diet with vegetables. 



In some cases it has been possible to ascertain the particular 

 breeding places of grasshoppers, some species depositing their 

 eggs in pasture lands and among foothills at the bases of 

 mountains in the Far West, in regions in which the tar weed 



