668 REPORT U^^ITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



RE3IEDIES. 



The locust may be most eifectually dealt with while in the egg-state. 

 Bouuties should be paid by the diflereiit States aud Territories, 

 as is done by European governments. As the eggs are laid very 

 close together aud only an inch beneath the surface, the top soil might 

 be gathered, into heaps and heated through by bonfires, or passed 

 through crushing mills, or the egg-sacs picked out by women and chil- 

 dren and liberal bounties be paid — so much a bushel — by town or county 

 inspectors, and then burned. Deep plowing and heavy rolling are very 

 advisable, and, on the other hand, harrowing the field in autumn so that 

 the egg-sacs may be turned up and exposed to the frost and birds and 

 hogs and cattle. 



When the locust is still wingless it does the most harm, and can then 

 be best kept within due limits. In Colorado and Utah, where irrigation is 

 practiced almost entirely, fields can be flooded, the ditches can be oiled, 

 and myriads be destroyed. Oil or any greasy substance is the best remedy 

 in dealing with any insect, os it should be remembered that insects do 

 not breathe air through the mouth, but inhale it through small open- 

 ings (spiracles) in the side of the body ; if these holes are covered with a 

 thin film of oil or grease of any kind, they die at once. By taking en- 

 ergetic measures; the farmers of Colorado, as will be seen by j\Ir. Byers's 



letter on p. , in the spring of 187(5 effectually destroyed the young 



brood. Fowls should also be turned among them ; the soil should be 

 rolled so as to crush them, and trenches dug and filled with straw and 

 set on fire aud the locusts driven into them with switches, or prairie- 

 fires be lighted in a circle around them, aud the locusts driven into them. 

 In Colorado a great deal of iugeiiuity has been evinced in dealing 

 with the locust, as may be seen in reading the two following extracts 

 from the newspapers, which contain some useful practical remedies : 



This is bow the embattled formers of Colorado deal with the grassboppers : A long 

 sheet-iron box, open at tbe to]), is swiing close to the ground, between two wheels, by 

 which it is moved over the field. Rising two or three feet above the top of the bos, 

 and bending forward from the rear, is a broad sheet of tin or sheet-iron. When in use 

 a fire is built in the bottom of the furnace, which is then pushed against the wind, the 

 overhanging wing or sail taking the hoppers as they rise, and feeding them in the 

 flames in a hurry. Sometimes a miniature windmill is added to the outfit, and sucks 

 in all the locusts for yards and yards around, destroying them by millions. Millions 

 more have been drowned in irrigating ditches by cunningly-devised traps which pre- 

 vent their escape from the water. While they were young and green, and before their 

 wings were grown, several tons of them were destroyed by a confidence grime which 

 deserves description. Between the young hoppers and the young wheat long rows of 

 dry straw were strewn, which soon became literally black and alive with the wrig- 

 gling little insects. When no more hoppers could be accommodated, the straw was 

 fired. Another device was to drag over the hopper-infested regions a tarpaulin plenti- 

 fully coated on the under side with coal-tar, which is instant death to the pests. Still, 

 with all these disadvantages against them, grasshoppers are ai)parently as numerous 

 as ever. • 



The farmers of Colorado are busily fighting the grasshoppers, which have appeared 

 in immense swarms. A letter fiora Denver says they "sluice them down the ditches 

 with water, gather them up in heaps aud burn them ; for the water will only collect, 

 and not drown, these very vital pests. They set cans of oil, dripping slowly, at the 

 heads of their ditches, aud the slightest touch of the oily film, floating down with the 

 running water, destroys the young grasshopper. They drag the ground with huge 

 harrows, covered with blazing brush, and thb flame scorches its tiny millions to death. 

 They draw papers or platforms smeared with tar along the fields, and the insects, try- 

 ing to hop over, fall on the tar and stick there. With all these devices they only thiu 

 out the unwelcome visitors. 



The following pertinent remarks I find in an editorial in the Rocky 

 Mountain News, November 22, 187G: 



The farmers of Colorado have demonstrated the fact that they can successfully com- 

 bat and conquer the young grasshopper. They undertook the fight with extreme re- 



