498 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



the young, which experience and ingenuity, together witli some knowl- 

 edge of the insect, may devise, I must sum up the matter, and, after 

 noticing some Acridian peculiarities of this season, close this note, which 

 is already too extended. 



1st. It is impossible to tell what may be done towards preventing 

 their incursions into the border States until their history has been more 

 thoroughly t raced. This can only be done through the general govern- 

 ment and with the aid of the military posts and stations. 



2d. While it would be folly to undertake to exterminate them in their 

 native haunts by destroying the eggs or the insects, yet, if it be possible 

 to induce the Indian s by rewards to collect the eggs and young along the 

 west side of the Plains, it would be wise to do so, and would, as a mat- 

 ter of course, do something toward diminishing them and keeping the 

 Indian squaws at least employed, for I doubt exceedingly as to the male 

 Indians doing much in this line, as they are so lazy. 



3d. If it is found that the hatching-grounds of the invading swarms 

 are in the areas mentioned heretofore, it would be well for the govern- 

 ment to give all its land of that section to induce immigration thereto^ 

 and the settlement, irrigation, and cultivation thereof. 



4th. When investigation shows the usual hatching-regions, if such 

 there be, and line of travel, signal-stations connected by telegraph lines 

 with the sections subject to invasion may do much good by giving 

 warning of the coming locust storm. 



5th. It would be wise for the people of Nebraska and Kansas to rely 

 more upon wheat and root crops, as the hordes usually come too late to 

 injure the former and cannot so greatly injure the latter as other crops. 

 But for the season after the incursion, when the young are expected to 

 hatch, this order will have to be somewhat reversed. This branch of 

 the subject, I think, has not received the attention of the farmers of the 

 border States which it deserves. 



6th. It would be well for the States visited to offer rewards for the 

 eggs and young, for although it might do but little towards thinning the 

 ranks of the pests it would do some good in this direction, and would 

 afford a means of subsistence to the unfortunate. 



7th. These States should make stringent laws protecting the insect- 

 eating birds, and adopt a method of enforcing them that would be car- 

 ried out. It will pay them to employ a naturalist to determine those 

 species which should be preserved and those for whose destruction a re- 

 ward should be offered. In addition to this, farmers should raise an 

 abundance of domestic fowls, which will furnish food as well as assist 

 in destroying the locusts. 



8th. It would be well for the farmers to raise more hogs wherever the 

 grounds are protected by fences and they can be allowed to range. 



9th. Ditching against the young larvse, and driving into ditches and 

 fire, and such other local remedies as the situation and means at hand 

 may suggest, should be employed, and the farmer should bravely fight 

 the battle. 



