NOt 5.] M elf' 01^ s ad op led in Tunis for deshoijing Lncuds. 131 



'* To attack a column of locusts in the rear is a bad tactic. Wlien a column has 

 been reconnoitred, the screen should be pitched several hundred yards in advance of 

 the head of the column. The screens are placed in an angle, of wliich the sides are 

 extended according to the supposed breadth of the column. At tlie head of the angle 

 a large trench is dug, and bordered with zinc. As soon as the screens are fixed into 

 position, the workmen should not show themselves either in front or behind the line. 

 'J'he locusts are easily scared in their march, and a whole column may thus change its 

 direction. 



" All the workmen should be employed on the flank of a column to drive the 

 locusts gently towards the screens. This operation, well conducted, leads to the 

 complete annihilation of a column. 



" When a landowner believes that his property is in danger, he will address him- 

 self to the chief of the section in his district. When the chief of a section requires 

 hands or material, he will address himself to the Controleur Civil or to the person dele- 

 gated by that otticer." 



In the beginning' of the campaign against the young locusts^ the 

 Screens furnished by Govern- authorities furnished the southern districts 

 "''''^^- with about 1,460 screens, and 1,100 were 



reserved for the districts of North Tunis, which have been since con- 

 siderably increased for the protection of the sections included in the dis- 

 tricts of Zaghouan, Kef, Beja, Bizerta, Ain Draham, Sec. 



The experiments made with '' huile lou7'de" a liquid for asphyxi- 

 "Huile lourde" (creosote ating the locusts, have been found most suc- 

 ^■■^)' eessful. 



Twenty-thousand kilos, were first ordered from Oran, where the inven-. 

 tion originated, for employment in places where fuel was scarce, but tlie 

 destructive effects of the liquid, combined with its antiseptic properties 

 when sprinkled over myriads of locusts at this hot season of the year, 

 when putrefaction sets in so rapidly, caused it to be universally and infin- 

 itely preferred to the former system of burning or crushing the locusts. 



" Iluile lotirde " is "creosote oil,^^ a product obtained by distilling 

 coal tar, and is sometimes called "Soft oil.^' 



The liquid costs from 11 to 13 frs. per 100 kilos. It is mixed with 

 Cost of the oil and modes of ^0 parts water to 40 parts " /luile lourde," 

 '^*''" and is useful — 



1. For the destruction of young locusts collected in small patches which do not 



call for the employment of screens. It tlien suffices to sprinkle the losusts 

 with the liquid in the morning or evening, when they are clustered together. 



2. For the destruction of young locusts collected in the traps by pourino- the. 



liquid through the rose of a watering-pot. 



The process of asj)hyxiationL is very raj)id, and the over-powering 

 Btench which usually arises from the masses of dead locusts is consider- 

 ably lessened. 



