276 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



entertained, as were also my companions. We made 

 it a rule, however, for not more than one of us to 

 stay with Mr. Dunford, as the farmer was called, at a 

 time ; for his family was large, and as he always 

 insisted that we should have a bed in the house, 

 though we would have been very well content with 

 a shakedown in one of the barns, the presence of more 

 than one guest must necessarily have upset the family 

 arrangements. However, I was so heartily pressed to 

 take up my abode at the farm that, on the whole, 

 I spent as much time there as with my trapper 

 friends. 



There was a great deal to interest one about the 

 farm, which was what, I believe, agriculturists in England 

 call a mixed one ; that is, part was devoted to raising 

 cattle and poultry, and part to crops. There were some 

 very fine meadows which had been made of artificial 

 grasses at great cost and trouble ; but these meadows 

 were much infested with grasshoppers which, in some 

 seasons, did so much damage as almost to ruin the 

 grass, the larvse injuring the roots, while the fully 

 developed insect devoured the grass. In very wet 

 seasons there were but few grasshoppers, but in dry 

 ones, as this summer was, the swarm amounted to a 

 plague. 



There were several species of this insect, but un- 

 fortunately I cannot give the specific name of any 

 of them. The first was so like the common English 

 grasshopper, that I could discover no difference, except 

 that it was at least twice the size. This was by far 

 the most numerous and destructive ; but another, and 

 much larger species, runs it very close in the latter 

 respect. This is, perhaps, a locust, for its wings are 

 more developed than in the first-mentioned grass- 

 hopper, and it flies powerfully. It grows to a very 

 great size, fine specimens being nearly two and a half 

 inches long. 



