670 REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



Kerosene oil is a valuable agent whenever it is practicable to use it, both to destroy the 

 grasshoppers and to prevent their depredations. A spoonful of oil, kept well shaken 

 up in a watering-pot tilled with water, and sprinkled upon melon-vines, squash-vines, 

 or any other garden vegetables, will effectually prevent their destruction. It is a cheap 

 means of defense and easily applied on a small scale. Various methods are in use for 

 the destruction of the eggs where they are known to be deposited. Deep fall or early 

 spring plowing has a tendency to disturb and destroy them, sometimes wholly and 

 sometimes only in part, but always seriously affecting their vitality. A flock of sheep 

 having the run of a stalk-field of mine last season completely destroyed a large deposit 

 of eggs. The ground was very loose and dry, and the surface becoming completely 

 pulverized and cut up with their feet, not one of them ever hatched. Birds are au 

 important aid in their destruction, and in loose soils they scratch out and eat enormous 

 numbers of them. The much-despised skunk, too, is a most desirable friend to man in 

 this contingency. A single skunk will often clear au acre of ground, even in sod, of 

 all grasshopper-eggs. No farmer in the West who has good sense will kill skunks. 

 They deserve to be propagated, even if it were necessary to nurse them on young 

 chickens. 



To defend a field of grain against flying grasshoppers, altogether different tactics must 

 be employed. Clouds of dense smoke made from burning old rags wet with kerosene 

 oil, or by burning coal-tar or sulphur in differint parts of the fields, have proved quite 

 successful when thoroughly tried. Sometimes also they may be driven from afield by 

 dragging ropes through the grain, on which are tied newspapers or rags ; when, how- 

 ever, they are tired with a long flight and are hungry from long fasting, this latter 

 method is generally of little avail. In this State the young grasshopper is our worst 

 enemy, our principal crop being wheat. The flying hosts seldom get here in time to 

 injure it. When we came out here the old settlers told us they only had grasshoppers 

 about once in seven years ; that season being free from them seemed to lend weight 

 to the statement. The next year bringing a pretty fair crop of them, they said they 

 usually came every other year, but as we have had them every year since, they now 

 say they generally stay about seven years in a place. Perhaps, after all, the " fourteen- 

 year locusts" would be an appropriate designation ; at least we look upon them as being 

 a permanent investment, and make our plans to fight them always. We have a fair 

 amount of eggs planted for next year's crop. 



lu Iowa the farmers spread bay or straw over the surface. "At night 

 the young insects would gather under it, and immense numbers were 

 burned up in this manner. Plowing is resorted to this fall (187G) in 

 some localities for the purpose of covering the eggs deep, by which it is 

 said they will rot. Other methods have been used, such as catching 

 them, and machines have been invented for this purpose. Kolliug the 

 ground in the spring had also been suggested as a means for destroying 

 the young insects." (Proc. Conference of Governors.) 



Some important suggestions of a practical nature are contained in the 

 following i^roclamation of the governor of Minnesota, here reprinted 

 from the Grasshopper Conference pamphlet: 



State of Mixnesota, Executive Department, 



Saint Paul, August 30, 1876. 



The continued and increasing ravages of the locusts or grasshoppers in many of the 

 Territories and States of the Union have been deemed sufficiently serious to warrant 

 A meeting of the governors of such States and Territories for consultation, with a view 

 to seek congressional aid, or otherwise secure combined action in resistance of the 

 growing evil. Such conference has been called to meet in October. Meantime the 

 widening area of the visitations of these insects in this State induces me without delay 

 to urge the jieople whose interests are most directly involved, to assemble iu public 

 meetings in their several localities, for the purpose of collecting information, inter- 

 changing views, and devising plans of concerted action for the destruction of the insects, 

 and for a common defense against their ravages. Both the correction of exaggerated 

 reports, and the promotion of an intelligent apprehension of the actual evil to be en- 

 countered, it is believed, would result from this course, while the hope of thus attaining 

 practical means of mutual i)rotection certainly justifies a united and energetic effort 

 in behalf of an object common to the public welfare. 



It is the concurrent belief of all who have given close attention to the subject that 

 it is practicable to destroy the pests in great measure or to insure a vast mitigation of 

 the worst results, by the timely, concerted, and persistent efforts of the several com- 

 munities directly concerned, and the employment of simple agencies readilj^ available. 

 To this end I have taken pains to collect, from the most reliable sources, information of 

 the several modes which have been successfully employed, which I here detail for the 



