PACK.ARD.J REMEDIES AGAIKST THE LOCUST. G69 



luctance, but won tho victory with less than half the trouble they expected. Ouly 

 those who feared to plant last spring, or those who planted so late that the flying 

 swarms in August caught their unripened grain, are now mourning the lack of good 

 crops. If they now had information that grasshopper-sggs are deposited plentifully 

 in Laramie Plains, the Sweetwater Country, or Upper Green River Hasin, none would 

 plant late next spring. All crops would be put in early and harvested in July, l)ecause 

 they wonhl know that if swarms of grasshoppers hatch in any of the regions named, 

 next spring the prevailing winds will he likely to bring their devouring hosts down 

 upon Colorado about tho second week of August. But we do not know whether any 

 egg-laying swarms invaded those countries in August, September, or October last or 

 not. So far as that matter is concerned, we are just as ignorant this year as wo were 

 in the fall of Is'GIJ prior to the hrst and most astonishing invasion of August, 1864. 

 Consequently, half the farmers, instead of planting in February and March, wifl put 

 it off until May, and then trust to luck. If no grasshoppers come, all right; if they 

 do come aud eat up the barley and wheat in the milk and the corn when the tassels 

 are shooting, they'll curse the country and their own hard fate — laziness. 



Althongh no one can tell now with ]iresent light, or rather darkness, whether or not 

 flying swarms of grasshoppers are likely to scourge Colorado next fall, we are all jiretty 

 certain th.at we will have plenty of young ones in the spring, and that some other 

 country will get them " on the wing " in the fall. It will probably be Southern Kan- 

 sas, Indian Territory, or Texas. They may reach Southwestern Missouri or Aikansas. 

 Consequently, the News advises the people in that direction to jdant early and mainly 

 of crops that will be harvested by the 20th of July. The grasshoppers that hatch here 

 Avill fly two or three weeks earlier than those from higher latitude and altitude. 



The farmers of Colorado ill 1876 were quite succe.ssful in combating 

 the locust. The best account of their mode of fighting them ap{)ears in 

 the New York Tribune, from the pen of Mr. J. Max Clark, of Greeley, 

 Colo. 



Indeed, notwithstanding thosa natural barriers to their progress eastward — climate 

 and soil — it is hardly safe to assert that they may not yet reach much farther iut ) the 

 older States than they have heretofore succeeded in penetratim:-. It is true they thrive 

 best in a dry climate, but they can exist and perpetuate themselves in a wet one ; they 

 prefer a dry sandy or gravelly soil in which to deposit their eggs, but the conditions not 

 being so favorable they will lay them in heavj' wet soil, with no apparent injury to 

 their vitality. They have been known to hatch in this vicinity on the margin of a 

 lake, in soil almost marshy in its texture. I have myself known them to come forth 

 in an apparently perfectly healthy condition from soil too wet to plow. 



While, for the reasons set forth, we can have no great faith in any method of general 

 destruction, there are means of defense which at times are very effective, and which 

 are always worth trying. In this State our main reliance is on water. Wo surround 

 our fields with ditches, and into the water we drop kerosene oil, which covers the sur- 

 face and kills the young grasshoppers at the touch. When they deposit eggs in the 

 fields, as they frequently do, we watch for their hatching and scatter straw over them 

 as they come out of the ground, and burn them if possible before they get scattered. 

 When young grasshoppers attack a crop th^ey generally do so in a compact body, much 

 in the form of a lino of battle, and for a short time at least after striking the vegeta- 

 tion do not scatter, but eat the border clean as they go. At such times they are easily 

 destroyed, and any farmer who has straw stacks and teams can, if quick and energetic, 

 generally save his crop by spreading straw on the advancing line and burning them. 

 When grasshoppers have invaded a field of young grain, or have hatched in it, and 

 have become scattered through it before they have been discovered, then another lino 

 of policy must be pursued, and one not so certain of success. We use a fire-machine, 

 which may be described as being a net-work of heavy wire (telegraph-wire is good) 

 upon runners of iron about 4 inches high, upon -which straw, coal, or wood is burned 

 as the machine is drawn by horses attached to long rods, meeting at a point 15 or 20 

 feet in advance of the machine. The machines vary in width from 8 to 12 feet in their 

 sweep, and are about 3 feet deep from front to rear, with a sheet-iron cover attached 

 to the rear and raised from 1 to 2 feet high in front to throw the flames downward 

 through the net-work of wire as the machine proceeds. This kills the young hoppers 

 without generally seriously injuring the grain. 



We also use a platform of zinc or canvas, or even thin hoards from 6 to 10 feet long 

 and 3 feet wide, upon which is spread coal-tar with a broom or whitewash-brush, from 

 a pailful of liquid ready for the purpose. This is dragged by hand or with a horse. 

 The runners under the platform are only a couple of inches in length, and the hoppers 

 jump on to the tarred surface aud stick fast as the machine is moved along. This is a 

 very simple contrivance, and is generally regarded as about as effectual as the fire- 

 machines, while not costing nearly so much in construction or for running-expenses. 



