1896.] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 47 



•drawn by one horse. Just in front of the pan was fastened a piece of 

 rope which swept the ground a few inches in advance and served to stir 

 up the hoppers to jump into the pan. In the pan was also a piece of 

 •cloth thoroughly saturated with water and about a pint of kerosene was 

 then thrown in, the upright backing of canvass being also moistened with 

 oil. The machine was then drawn slowly over the pastures where the 

 hoppers were thickest, and in a short time it was partially filled with dead 

 and dying insects. The slightest touch of kerosene either from the pan 

 or the canvass sheet means death to the hopper, for the oil spreads over 

 his body as a single drop does over a large surface of water. It seems 

 to produce a paralysis, which is first shown by the stiffening of the legs. 

 A very large proportion of the hoppers that come into contact with the 

 oil in the pan immediately jump out again, but they invariably die in the 

 course of a few seconds or minutes. The nature of the ground in the 

 infested region did not in many places admit of using more than one 

 hopper-dozer at a time. The farmers watched with great interest the 

 operation of the first few hopper-dozers, coming from far and near for 

 that purpose, and when they saw the possibilities of these simple ma- 

 chines they were not slow to realize that by faithful work they could 

 largely protect their very promising crops. Generally speaking, the far- 

 mers showed a very commendable spirit to fight their enemy and they 

 ■went to work with a will. Yet notwithstanding all this, the grasshoppers 

 ■would have done a vast amount of damage if the climatic conditions had 

 ■not been very favorable to the farmer. At the time when the grasshop- 

 pers are most voracious, and when they usually move about in large armies 

 from field to field, a great number of light rains fell at short intervals, 

 assisting the plants most wonderfully in their growth, while greatly damp- 

 ing the ardor of such warmth loving insects as the grasshoppers, which 

 are not fond of moisture. These rains helped the plants and retarded 

 the growth of the grasshoppers. Later, when these rains ceased to fall, 

 the rye, oats and wheat were so close and rank that the ground was 

 thoroughly shaded and retained the moisture for a long time. This con- 

 dition of the grain fields was not at all to the liking of the grasshoppers; 

 they wandered about the edges of such fields, but did not enter. Only 

 in cases where the growth was poor, or the stand of grain irregular, did 

 they enter or cause damage; chiefly to the oats. As a general rule, how- 

 ever, the grain escaped unhurt, and only pastures, meadows and some 

 old Timothy fields suffered. This state of aflfairs assisted farmers greatly 

 in fighting the enemy, as they did not have to use the machines in the 

 grain itself, but only along the borders. Immense numbers of grasshop- 

 pers were killed before they caused much damage. How many were 

 killed by a hopper-dozer is difficult to say, as 9 out of 10 that jump into 

 it jump out again, only to die soon after in the field; but if only 5 or 6 

 bushels of the small grasshoppers are swept off" the dozer during a day's 

 labor, this would mean 50 to 60 bushels killed by a single machine. This 

 is by no means an exaggerated estimate, but if only 10 per cent, of this 



