204 MONTANA EXPERIMENT STATION Bui. 1 24 



While the grasshopper troubles m 1917 extended scatteriiigly 

 throughout the State, they centered mainly in an irregular area 

 extending through parts of Missoula, Flathead, and Sanders counties. 

 Roughly speaking, the region affected extended from near the town 

 of Stevensville to Blathead Lake, a distance of about 70 miles. There 

 were more or less grasshoppers throughout this region, but in spots 

 they were very abundant and in some places practically everything 

 green was eaten oiT. Much more damage would have been done 

 but for the control work which was organized by the county agents 

 and this ofihce in cooperation. The young grasshoppers hatched 

 through a long-drawn-out period and those that hatched first were 

 entirely or quite full grown before the last ones appeared. At no 

 time in the fore part of the season could we tell just how severe 

 the outbreak was to be. As the season advanced and many of the 

 insects had acquired wings the grasshoppers spread out from the 

 more or less restricted areas where they had hatched and the infesta- 

 tion became general. It sometirhes happened that after the grass- 

 hoppers had been killed in a locality others moved in, which made 

 the conditions somewhat discouraging to the farmers. Along with 

 the grasshoppers came a spell of severe dry weather and some crops 

 which had been saved from the insects were afterwards severely 

 injured by lack of moisture. Grasshoppers w^ere also very abundant 

 and some damage was done in the region extending through the 

 western part of Gallatin County and the southern part of Broadwater 

 County. Control operations were carried out here, also. 



Extracts from a letter written b}^ Sidney T. Rogers of Three 

 Forks, whose land lies in Broadwater County, are here presented : 



"About July the grasshoppers were so thick in my wheat field 

 you could scarcely see wheat heads and were simply destroying it 

 completely. I conferred with our county agent and in response he 

 came with Mr. Seamans and they together constructed a 'hopper 

 machine. I placed my son and daughter in the field on horses 

 attached to each end and they caught twenty-eight (28) gunny sacks 

 of 'hoppers, a fair estimate of 50 bushels. 



"I am fully convinced if it had not been for the assistance of 

 Prof. Seamans and Mr. Gordon, onr Broadwater County agent, I 

 would have lost my entire wheat crop of 231 acres." 



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"I am feeding the 'hoppers to our chickens and they have laid 



