206 MONTANA EXPERIMENT STATION Bui. 124 



Flats. A few over ninety men were present on this occasion and 

 about forty-five farm wagons. The whole community was assembled 

 at this point and worked all day preparing the poisoned bran mash 

 which late in the afternoon was shoveled into the back end of the 

 wagons and spread over the valley and foothills. Thirty-five wagons 

 were used in spreading this poison . These were lined up by groups 

 of five and driven over the country in long, broad swaths. 



In this neighborhood grasshoppers were incredibly abundant 

 but on returning a few days later relatively few could be found. 

 Such drives as this were organized throughout a territory extending 

 over some 200 square miles, and some 10,000 pounds of white arsenic 

 were used, as well as many carloads of bran and some carloads of 

 lemons and oranges. Tremendous numbers of grasshoppers were 

 killed and the damage that was done in spite of the control efforts 

 was due largely to grasshoppers which hatched later in the same 

 localities or which migrated in from the surrounding foothills and 

 uncultivated lands. The spell of dry weather which occurred at 

 the same time had the effect of causing the grasshoppers to con- 

 centrate on low-lying lands which remained green longer and it was 

 quite clear that the grasshoppers moved considerable distances to 

 find such green areas. It was soon found that in some cases a single 

 poisoning of the field or its borders could not be depended upon to 

 protect the crop throughout the season. In some instances, after 

 having poisoned earlier in the season, the farmers resorted to the 

 use of the grasshopper machines to further protect the crops. It 

 was, of course, hoped all the time that rains would come. If it had 

 been known at the outset that rains would be so long delayed, in 

 many instances the farmers would never have made the effort to 

 save the crops. In some cases the eft'orts were successful and in 

 some they were not, but I believe that the failure was due very 

 largely to the dry weather, which not only itself damaged the crop, 

 but caused concentration of the grasshoppers in the crops. 



COOPERATION WITH THE BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY 



Early in the grasshopper outbreak we entered a cooperative 

 arrangement with and had the assistance of the Bureau of Entomol- 

 ogy, U. S. Department of Agriculture. Mr. C. W. Creel, who is in 

 charge of the Forest Grove Entomological Station of the Bureau in 

 Oregon, came to Montana about June 1st with assistants and 



