314 



NA TURE 



[January 13, 1910 



important problems have arisen which could not be 

 authoritatively solved by practical experience only. 

 It was recognised that, as in other industries, the one 

 condition of progress was the founding of an insti- 

 tution devoted solely to the study of cereals, and in 

 which every detail of the questions at issue could be 

 submitted to rigid experimental investigation. 

 Accordingly the required institute was established. 

 It was erected at the expense of the State, but receives 

 subventions from the Chamber of Agriculture, the 

 Society of Millers, and others. 



Finally, for the specific assistance of certain local 

 industries, technical schools exist, the particular in- 

 stances quoted being the professional college of cera- 

 mics at Buntzlau and a similar but more restricted 

 institution at Lauban. The instruction here is less 

 generalised than at Charlottenburg, the aim being 

 to impart an artistic and technical education suited 

 to the special requirements of the locality. 



As regards cooperation, a good deal is said, 

 but we are only concerned here with its bear- 

 ing upon technological progress, not with its 

 purely trade aspects. Associations of manufac- 

 turers are formed, and if, for example, it is required 

 to carry out some special research, they may give 

 subventions for the purpose to technical colleges or 

 to individual experts; or a commission may be 

 nominated to make experiments ; or chemists and 

 engineers may be dispatched abroad to study new 

 processes and new apparatus. Thus even a small 

 manufacturer can keep himself abreast of progress 

 in his department, and researches altogether too costly 

 for single firms can be carried out by spreading the 

 cost over the whole association. As concrete examples 

 may be mentioned (i) the makers of explosives, who 

 inaintain an experimental laboratory with firing 

 ground and testing station at an annual cost of 

 200,000 marks ; and (2) the association of Portland 

 cement manufacturers, who, for the reputation of 

 German cement, make stipulations as to quality, and 

 support a laboratory where each member's product is 

 examined to ensure that it conforms to the require- 

 ments. 



Lack of space forbids us to follow M. Leduc 

 further in his study of this most interesting question, 

 but the keynote of the whole matter is organisation. 

 There is first an intelligent appreciation of the benefits 

 which science can render to industry ; next a liberal 

 but carefully-bestowed provision for instruction of her 

 sons in the applications of science; and then, by her 

 organised system of trade syndicates, Germany pushes 

 home the advantage gained through her equally well- 

 organised system of technological education. 



C. SlMMONDS. 



PLAGUES OF LOCUSTS IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



FOR the past three years an organised effort has 

 been made by the Governments of the South 

 African colonies to destroy the swarms of locusts that 

 from time to time invade the cultivated districts and 

 ravage the crops. The third annual report of the 

 Central Locust Bureau has lately been issued under 

 the editorship of Mr. C. P. Lounsbury, the entomolo- 

 gist for the Cape.i Together with the two previous 

 reports it furnishes a very instructive demonstration of 

 what can be done by enlightened executives working 

 harmoniously on scientific principles. The Central 

 Bureau comprises representatives of the Cape, Natal, 

 Transvaal, Orange River Colony, Southern Rhodesia, 

 Bechuanaland, Basutoland, Swaziland, Mozambique, 



1 Third Annual Report of ihe Committee of Control of the South African 

 Central Locust Buieau. Edited by Charles P. Lounsbury, Government 

 Entomologist, Cape of Good Hope. (Cape Town, 1909.) 



NO. 2098, VOL. 82] 



and German South-west Africa, its influence thus over- 

 stepping political boundaries. It acts by collecting 

 and spreading information about locusts and their 

 migrations throughout the district of its operations, 

 the actual work of repression or extermination being 

 undertaken by the local governments separately. 



Two species of locust periodically become serious 

 plagues in South .\frica. The red-winged locust 

 (Cyrtocanthacris septemfasciata) infests, in various 

 seasons, the east coast districts, migrating in spring 

 and summer, and retiring to the forests in winter. 

 The young locusts are active and most destructive 

 during January and February. No serious invasion of 

 this species was observed in Natal and the neighbour- 

 ing districts between 1846 and 1893. Whence the 

 migrating swarms come has not been certainly deter- 

 mined, but the Zambezi region is regarded as their 

 probable home. Since 1893 there have been several 

 plagues of this locust in the British colonies, notably in 

 1907-8, when more than 33,000 swarms were destroyed 

 in Natal. During 1908-9 the insects were by far less 

 numerous ; nevertheless, it is computed that a loss of 

 250,000/. from damage to crops was prevented by the 

 exertions of the locust officers. 



The brown locust (Pachytylus siilcicollis) has its 

 headquarters in the Kalahari Desert, whence swarms 

 migrate into the settled central regions of the South 

 African colonies. The eggs of this species are laid in 

 winter, and are incited to hatch by the influence of 

 the summer rains. Dry conditions lead to postpone- 

 ment of hatching, possibly for a term of more than 

 three years, and such "suspension of animation " is ob- 

 viously of advantage to a desert-haunting species. 

 Like the red-winged, the brown locust was less 

 numerous and destructive in 1908-g than in 1907-8, 

 which seems to have been a year of exceptionally 

 severe attack. In March of last year, how- 

 ever, enormous swarms of this species invaded Cape 

 Colony from the north, overspreading an area of 

 125,000 tquare miles, so that during the summer of 

 igog-io great care and energy will be needed to keep 

 the pests in check. 



.\ccording to Mr. Lounsbury, no preventive measures 

 can be taken in the " uninhabited and practically 

 waterless wastes " whence the great swarms migrate 

 into the colonies. .Attention must be directed to the 

 destruction of the young locusts hatched from the 

 eggs laid by these winged swarms. The young 

 insects during their preparatory stages, while the 

 wings are still undeveloped, are known as " hoppers " 

 or " voetgangers " by the English or Dutch farmers. 

 It is these young locusts that ravage the crops to so 

 terrible an extent, and if the insects be left alone, suc- 

 cessive generations may follow each other in the 

 settled districts that are invaded. The farmers, there- 

 fore, assisted by the Government, are urged to make 

 war on the "hoppers." Burning grass lands, and 

 poisoning with a sweetened solution of soda arsenite, 

 are the means of combat now in general use. During 

 the locust-campaign of 1907-8, forty-three tons of 

 soda arsenite, ninety-eight tons of sugar, forty t'".ns of 

 treacle, 150 water-tanks, and 5000 pumps were pro- 

 vided, and nearly i2,oooZ. was expended. 



In his warfare against the locusts, man finds valu- 

 able allies in several species of birds, which pursue the 

 locust swarms, and sometimes well-nigh exterminate 

 them. Kestrels, the "locust bird" [Glareola melan- 

 optera), and the white stork are especially active as 

 locust-eaters. It is of great interest to find that two 

 white storks observed devouring locusts in Basutoland 

 in January, 1909, bore leg-rings with inscriptions 

 showing that the birds had migrated from northern 

 Germanv in the preceding autumn. 



G. H. C. 



