16 MONTANA EXPERIMENT STATION BUIX,ETIN 333 



spreader, and twelve dollars per hour for an airplane, would be 



about as follows: 



Method of Rate acres Labor time Cost ot Cost of 



spreading per hour hours spreading bait Total cost 



Hand 8 $625,000 $625,000 $312,500 $937,500 



Mech. Spreader.. 25 200,000 300,000 312,500 512,500 



Airplane 100 50,000 600,000 312,500 912,500 



It is extremely doubtful if enough airplanes to do the job with- 

 in a reasonable length of time could be found in the country. 

 Furthermore even at twelve dollars per hour, which is a very 

 low rate for airplane hire, the cost is excessive. The airplane 

 method is all very well for dusting a few acres of high-priced 

 crops in California, but for grasshopper control it appears very 

 impractical. Even more impossible and expensive would be 

 hand spreading. On the contrary the use of mechanical spread- 

 ers, made from the rear ends of old automobiles, is within the 

 bounds of reason. Two thousand such mechanical spreaders 

 could be built and still keep the total cost below $600,000. This 

 estimate contains two presumptions which may be unwarranted. 

 First, that the cost of the bait could be reduced to $12.50 per 

 ton, and second, that enough materials would be obtainable for 

 the work. 



Between the two approaches to the control of range grass- 

 hoppers, the writer favors a combination of prevention together 

 with the poisoning of rather large areas of our best range, even 

 in bad outbreak years. It may appear to many readers that the 

 above paragraphs contain impractical ideas and some unsup- 

 ported assumptions. That is readily admitted. On the other 

 hand the figures presented are as conservative as possible. Con- 

 sidering the immense importance of this problem at the present 

 time, the state, together with whatever aid may be obtained 

 from the federal government, should make a strenuous effort 

 toward the control of range grasshoppers. It is by way of en- 

 couraging the most practical and intelligent solution of the prob- 

 lem that this duscussion has been presented. 



LOSSES FROM GRASSHOPPERS AND SAVINGS WHICH 

 HAVE BEEN EFFECTED 



Table 4 presents estimates for the past three years on the 

 losses due to grasshopper depredations and the saving resulting 

 from the employment of control measures. Had it not been for 



