380 REPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



satisfaction, to wit : We have probably not lost to exceed one acre out of seventy-five 

 planted, including corn, wheat, rye, oats, and potatoes or vegetables, among whicli 

 we had planted peas, beans, beets, lettuce, onions, squashes, melons, &e. Our 'hop- 

 pers have been gone now ten or more days, but wa are in constant fear that they will 

 drop down upon, us every day, but if they do not we shall have a full crop, so far as 

 'hoppers are concerned. 



Inclosed please find a rough pen-sketch of my farm and surrounding country, showing 

 the water and 'hopper ditches, also the different crops on the place and those of my 

 neighbors, L. J. Apply, A. J. Gillman, and W. D. Cole, who cut ditches around what 

 little wheat they have left unharmed after they saw that my ditches were proving 

 successful, and I am happy to state that they have likewise been as successful as my- 

 self, so far as they took advantage of the 'hoppers, but they did not commence until 

 these had eaten in some distance from the edge of their grain ; consequently they were 

 compelled to cut through their grain to head them off. 



I first had a ditch cut all around the outside of my place, commencing on the 

 northwest corner and finishing on the southwest corner, at the slough ; then I 

 had ditches cut around the garden, truck-patch, and wheat, to protect those from 

 the 'hoppers hatched on the farm. My ditches were from one and a half to two feet 

 wide, and about as deep as wide, with perpendicular banks or sides, and two post- 

 holes side by side across the bottom of the ditch (with seven-inch post- auger bits) two 

 feet in depth, about once every rod, at first, and afterward, in places where large 

 swarms or herds attacked us, as often, sometimes, as every four feet. 



Up to the time of the development of the 'hoppers' wiags a less number of pits or 

 trap-holes will do, but after that time it is very necessary to have the sink-holes near 

 together, as the 'hoppers will travel but a short distance in the bottom of the ditch 

 before they will attempt to climb the sides unless precipitated into a pit-hole, conse- 

 quently the sink-holes are the most important part of the warfare, the ditch acting as 

 a kind of run-way to the trap or sink-holes. As to the cost of the ditch it must be 

 born in mind that our land is a light sandy loam, and consequently very easy digging, 

 and I was fortunate in hiring most of my laborers rather cheaply, from 75 cents to $1 

 per day and board, and the hands cut from 15 to 20 rods per day each, making an 

 average of 17^ rods per day ; but I think they were extra good laborers. 



After the ditch was complete, and with sink-holes about one to every rod, I employed 

 a good, resi^onsible laborer for a month to keep the ditch in order and bore new sink- 

 holes as often as the others were filled with 'hoppers, always putting some earth in the 

 holes containing the 'hoppers, covering them to prevent their escape and the disagree- 

 able odor from decomposition. And let me here remark that, while this last laborer 

 made an average of two hundred and thirty sink-holes per day, two feet deep, he was 

 at times unable to furnish sink-bcles as fast as they were filled with 'hoppers, so that 

 every few days I was obliged to furnish an extra hand to assist in making sink-holes. 



In regard to the number of bushels of 'hoppers caught, it is difficult to determine, 

 as a part of the holes would be filled full, and others probably not more than three- 

 fourths full. Each hole, if full, would contain at least half a bushel of 'hoppers, if 

 alive, and I think more rather than less. 



The hatching-grounds were all about us, the ground being literally filled with eggs 

 almost everywhere around us, as well as on the farm, 20 acres of which was breaking. 

 I am quite certain that all the 'hoppers hatched on my farm were in the ditch before 

 they were two weeks old, respectively; and had all of my neighbors commenced ditch- 

 ing as thoroughly as we did and as early in the season (I commenced about the middle 

 of April), I am quite sure we would have had a good crop all about the country and 

 with not more than half the labor that it was to us after the ditcji was dug; besides 

 we would have had but very few, if any, 'hoppers to take wings and fly away. 



I have demonstrated to my mind that a ditch cut around 160 acres of land before 

 hatching time, supplied with only a limited number of sink-holes, will catch all the 

 'hoppers hatched on said land, besides many from the outside, before they are more 



