7G INSECTS INJUUIOL'S lU Sl'Al'I.E CHOPS. 



Hopper dozers. — One of the methods most extensively 

 tried i'or the destruction of the nymphs upon small or 

 young crops is by the use of crude kerosene or coal-tar in 

 one of the so-called ^' nopperdozers." '^The main idea 

 embodied in these contrivances is that of a shallow recep- 

 tacle of any convenient size, provided with high back and 

 sides, mounted either on wheels or runners. If the pan 

 is larger than, say, three feet square, it is provided with 

 transverse partitions, which serve to prevent any slopping 

 of the contents (in case water and oil are used) when the 

 device is subject to any irregular motion. On pushing 

 these pans, supplied with oil, over the infested fields, and 

 manipulating the shafts or handles so as to elevate or 

 depress the front edge of the pan, as may be desired, the 

 locusts are startled and spring into the tar or oil, when 

 they are either entangled in the tar and die slowly, or, 

 coming in contact with the more active portion of the oil, 

 expire almost immediately. A good cheap pan is made of 

 ordinary sheet iron, eight feet long, eleven inches wide at 

 the bottom, and turned up a foot high at the back and 

 an inch high in the front. A runner at each end, extend- 

 ing some distance behind, and a cord attached to each 

 front corner, complete the ^^an at a cost of about §1.50 

 (Fig. 47). We have known of from seven to ten bushels 

 of young locusts caught with one such pan in an afternoon. 

 It is easily pulled by two boys, and by running several 

 together in a row, one boy to each rope, and one to each 

 contiguous pair, the best work is performed with the least 

 labor." Larger pans may be drawn by horses. The oil 

 is best used on the surface of water, from which the insects 

 are removed with a wire strainer. Various modifications 

 of this apparatus have been devised, but the more simple 



