EFFECTS OF TRAMPING ON THE EGGS. 361 



markable — the more so when viewed in coDnection with the results 

 obtained in the succeeding experiments. That the eggs should hatch 

 after several weeks' submergence, and that the young insect should even 

 throw off the post-natal pellicle, was, to us, quite a surprise, and argues 

 a most wonderful toughness and tenacity. After they had been dried 

 and soaked for over six weeks, under conditions that approach those of 

 spring, we found a good proportion of the eggs to contain the full-formed 

 and living young, which, though somewhat shrunken, and evidently too 

 weak to have made an exit, were still capable of motion. The water 

 evidently retards hatching. An examination of the submerged eggs 

 that remained unhatched long after others had hatched, which had. been 

 under similar treatment up to a certain time, and then transferred to 

 earth, showed all the parts to be unusually soft and flaccid. Yet, when 

 once life has gone, the egg would seem to rot quicker in the water than 

 in the ground. 



The results of experiments 23-25c prove conclusively that water in 

 winter-time, when subject to be frozen, is still less injurious to the eggs. 



Altogether, these experiments give us very little encouragement as 

 to the use of water as a destructive agent ; and we can readily under- 

 stand how eggs may hatch out, as they have been known to do, in 

 marshy soil, or soil too wet for the plow ; or even from the bottom of 

 ponds that were overflowed during the winter and spring. While a cer- 

 tain proportion of the eggs may be destroyed by alternately soaking and 

 drying the soil at short-repeated intervals, it is next to impossible to do 

 this in practice during the winter season as effectually as it was done in 

 the exi^eriments ; and the only case in which water can be profitably 

 used is where the land can be flooded for a few days just at the period 

 when the bulk of the eggs are hatching. 



4. Tramping. — In pastures or in fields where hogs, cattle, or horses 

 can be confined when the ground is not frozen, many if not most of the 

 locust-eggs will be destroyed by the rooting and tramping. 



5. Collecting. — The eggs are frequently placed where none of the 

 above means of destroying them can be employed. In such cases 

 they should be collected and destroyed by the inhabitants, and the 

 State should offer some inducement in the way of bounty for such col- 

 lection and destruction. Every bushel of eggs destroyed is equivalent 

 to a hundred acres of corn saved, and when we consider the amount of 

 destruction caused by the young, and that the ground is often known 

 to be filled with eggs ; that, in other words, the earth is sown with the 

 seeds of future destruction, it is surprising that more legislation has not 

 been had, looking to their extermination. 



One of the most rapid ways of collecting the eggs, especially where 

 they are numerous and in light soils, is to slice off about an inch of the 

 soil by trowel or spade, and then cart the egg-laden earth to some shel- 

 tered place where it may be allowed to dry, when it may be sieved so as 

 to separate the eggs and egg-masses from the dirt. The eggs thus col- 



