DESTRUCTION OF GRASSHOPPERS. 



59 



FIG. 30. View in front of hopper-dozer, showing quantity of grasshoppers just taken 



from the pans. 



field. Two days later the same amount of ground was covered, but 

 not as many insects were taken. Grasshoppers no longer entered this 

 corn and the hopper-dozer was no longer used at this point. 



It has been my experience with this machine that after it has 

 passed over vegetation it does not injure the plants, but in some way 

 renders vegetation distasteful to the grasshoppers, so that they turn 

 their course and seek food elsewhere. 



I have observed that these native grasshoppers enter a field from 

 one corner or side, and that they are not as a rule scattered over the 

 whole field, but occur in great numbers in patches. This being the 

 case, it is evident that with very little labor with this machine the 

 products of a field can be given full opportunity to mature 



Mr. Ford, of Hamilton county, used this machine to protect the al- 

 falfa seed crop. He did not stop, however, with guarding this field, 

 but caught them wherever they were to be found. Some weeks after 

 I left, Mr. Ford wrote me : "I am catching them whenever I get time, 

 and I am now satisfied it is a solution of the grasshopper problem." 

 The machine is much more efficient upon bright, warm days, when the 

 insects are upon the vegetation and active, than upon cold, cloudy 

 days, when the young locusts are resting sluggishly upon the ground. 



DESCRIPTION OF PLATE VIII. Hopper-dozer at work in Kafir-corn on 

 north ranch of Ball & Goddard, Edwards county. J. H. Smart, superintendent; 

 Wm. Weber, foreman. Native grasshoppers had entered this corn from newly 

 mown alfalfa field on the left, outside of view in picture. (Photographed by 

 Hunter, July 20, 1898.) 



