358 REPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



The following experiences of correspondents are worthy of record 

 here: 



I plowed my orchard in the last days of March, and last week I was plowing some 

 potatoes and I plowed out a good many 'hoppers, and in two or three minutes they 

 would kick out and jump. I don't know how long they can live in the ground, but I 

 don't think they can get out when they are plowed under. — [C. G. Brooks, Cherryvale, 

 Montgomery County, Kansas, June 16, 1877. , 



The effect of plowing under the eggs quite deeply at any time before hatching, either 

 in the fall or spring, has been to retard the hatching and give birds and other enemies 

 a better chance to destroy them as they hatched. I think many never see the surface 

 that are turned down with the plow. — [Robt. Milliken, Emporia, Kans., September 15, 

 1877. 



Deep plowing is here the most effectual way of destroying the eggs. — [J. G. McGrue, 

 Audubon, Minn., June 20, 1877. 



I and my brother plowed a piece of land last fall that the 'hoppers had laid their 

 eggs in, and not one per cent, hatched out. Time of plowing, September 9 ; depth of 

 plowing, 6 inches ; nature of soil, sandy loam. — [Thomas Nixon, Argyle, Sumner 

 County, Kansas, November 5, 1877. 



The land plowed early last fall by my neighbor, Thomas Bennett, was subsequently 

 filled with eggs. He dragged and sowed it with wheat. It is now full of locusts. Mr. 

 A. Burch, another neighbor, plowed late, and he has no locusts. My brother's farm was 

 one-half plowed early, the other half late. The former hatched many locusts, the lat- 

 ter none. — [Seth Kenny, Morristown, Minn., June 9, 1877. 



We plowed our land before many of the 'hoppers had hatched. It is high, rolling 

 land, with considerable sand, and considerably worn from continued cropping for 19 

 years. We plowed about 15th of May. The largest hatch of the 'hoppers in any one 

 day was May 27. They continued tohatch in considerable quantities up to June 10. 

 Some few hatched after this date. But the most disagreeable part of it remains 

 to be told. June 21 (the season was late for corn) we commenced to cultivate our corn, 

 and immediately the young 'hoppers came out by millions. We have about twenty- 

 four acres of corn in one field, and in the aggregate they make an ''exceeding great 

 army." Six acres of this corn was on timothy soil, that was very full of eggs. — llbid., 

 July 2, 1877. 



Plowing, when properly done, is almost perfect destruction to tbe eggs. — [J. W. 

 Bagby, Tabor, Clay County, Kansas, May 10, 1877. 



So far as I can judge from my own experience and from observation, plowirg the 

 eggs under in the spring has destroyed most of them. — [T. C. Wells, Manhattan, Kans., 

 June 27, 1877. 



Plowing under only preserved tlie eggs to be hatched whenever a favorable oppor- 

 tunity prtsented.— [E. Snyder, Atchison, Kans., June 26, 1877. 



Yesterday I examined a field closely that had been plowed under in early spring. I 

 found thousands of nests of eggs hatched out and the young ones dead, baving been 

 unable to work their way out of the ground. There are many such instances here.— 

 [ Saml. Aughey, Lincoln, Nebr., May 4, 1877. 



Believing it to be the duty of every good citizen to contribute all the information he 

 may possess in relation to the destruction of the locusts, I will send you the practical 

 experience of an observing farmer in this vicinity. In the spring of 1875, when the 

 grasshopper committed such ravages in Western Missouri, William R. Hornbuckle 

 relates that he had occasion to break up, for corn, a field that was in clover the year 

 previous (1874), upon which the locust-eggs were more than usually thick. He plowed 

 deeply the first of April and turned the eggs under so deep that they never hatched, 

 or, if they did hatch, he never saw the locusts afterward. He thinks he plowed some 

 eight or nine inches deep. The use of cultivators never disturbed the eggs. He ex- 

 amined the ground often during the season and found only the old eggs and no 'hop- 

 pers. One portion of the clover-field he failed to break until the eggs were hatched. 

 In this the young locusts came so thick as to make the ground black, and while they 

 were yet small he turned them under like the eggs, in the first instance. He saw 

 very few of them afterward.— [Jno. B. Womall, Kansas City, Mo., January 23, 1877. 



If the eggs are plowed under very deep in the fall, I believe many will fail to hatch 

 or the young will not reach the surface when hatched. They should be thrown under 

 about six inches in sandy, loose soil. Spring plowing has done but little if any good. 

 It only causes them to hatch later in the season.— [A. H. Gleason, Little Sioux, Iowa, 

 May 21, 1877. 



Deep fall plowing seems to have destroyed many of the eggs. Every piece of break- 

 ing that was not fall-plowed suffered severely ; that which was plowed and harrowed 

 in the fall did not suffer much. — [ W. J. Newell, Athol, Iowa, July 2, 1877. 



