CCXXXVl 



The muscular action is here too complex to allow of any mechanical 

 discussion, but the general results are exactly what the discussions of 

 Prof. Haughton might have enabled us to predict. 



Mr. Nipher remarked, that an experience of several years in the investi- 

 gation of this subject had enabled him to devise a method of investigation 

 which promises useful results, but he had not the means with which to 

 carry on the investigation. 



Mr. Riley made a few remarks about the anticipated locust 

 injury next summer. The soil in a large portion of Minnesota, 

 Iowa, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, and Arkansas, and in 

 about sixteen counties of the State of Missouri, was thickly plant- 

 ed with locust eggs. He was receiving eggs from every one of 

 the sixteen Missouri counties affected by them (four counties in 

 the extreme northwest corner of the State, and twelve counties in 

 the southwest portion of the State) almost daily, and was there- 

 fore being kept constantly informed as to the condition of these 

 eggs in all the counties. A great many of the eggs hatched in 

 his office within a week after their arrival here, and it followed 

 that a week's warm weather next spring would be sufficient to 

 hatch them all out, provided they were not killed meanwhile. 

 The only kind of weather that would be at all likely to kill them 

 was changeable weather, alternating suddenly between very mild 

 and very cold. Although the locusts hatched next summer 

 throughout the West will probably be more numerous than in 

 1875, their devastations will probably be less, for the reason that 

 the farmers will this time be better prepared for them on account 

 of the experience of the past. 



Mr. Todd called the attention of Mr. Riley to a newspaper 

 paragraph announcing that seven car-loads of silkworm eggs had 

 passed through Omaha yesterday on their way to France, and he 

 asked the Professor how the eggs were packed to preserve their 

 vitality. 



In reply, Mr. Riley described the mode adopted by silkworm 

 growers in Japan, specialists who grow the worms only for their 

 eggs, and who are constantly engaged in transporting them. The 

 eggs are first separated in some liquid and are then sifted upon 

 silk paper, previously covered with a thin coat of paste. The 

 eggs adhere to the paste on the silk papers, and the latter are 

 packed in boxes constructed purposely for them, and are then 

 ready for shipment. 



