THE USE OF COAL-TAR. 389 



Meeker County, Minnesota, summoned the county commissioners and determined to 

 send for 250 barrels of coal-tar and 1,000 sheets of iron. Other counties took similar 

 action, and for a time it was impossible to supply the material fast enough. When 

 tar was wanting, kerosene, molasses, ashes or sand moistened with kerosene, ashes and 

 water, soft soap, or flour and water were used ; the latter, when well filled with young 

 locusts, was fed to the hogs. Tar was shipped over the different lines free of freight 

 charge, and the State provided a supply of 1,000 barrels to he distributed wherever it 

 was needed. — [Mr. Whitman. 



Since Thursday morning there has been shipped from this city to points in Minne- 

 sota, over the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul Railroad, over 2,000 barrels of coal- 

 tar and 20 tons of sheet-iron, consigned mostly to the governor of that State. The 

 articles have been sold by Chicago merchants at cost price, while the railroad company 

 has taxed the shippers a merely nominal figure for hauling the freight, as they are the 

 parties who, next to the farmers, expect to be most largely benefited in the end. The 

 coal-tar will be used for the extermination of the young grasshoppers, and the sheet- 

 iron is required for the construction of a machine for the effective utilization of the 

 tar. Thousands of these machines will be built in Minnesota before the end of next 

 week. The machine is simple in its construction. A strip of sheet-iron 12 or 15 feet 

 loug is bent up on one edge sufficiently to admit of its passing over lumps of earth. 

 Other strii)s, from 4 to 6 inches wide, are riveted to the other edge and at each end, 

 forming a kind of scoop. (This is a "scoop" on the other grasshoppers.) A wire is 

 attached to each front corner of the scoop by which it can be drawn ov^ r the ground. 

 A chain or rope is fastened so that it will drag upon the ground about 18 inches in ad- 

 vance of the machine. This will scare up the grasshoppers. The inside of the scoop 

 is thickly plastered with coal-tar, and the machine is dragged across the field against 

 the wind. Millions of 'hoppers will stick to the tar. When the scoop gets full the 

 driver can either scrape oft' the insects in a heap and burn them or blaze them against 

 the bottom of the machine. — ICMcago Times. 



Saturday, May 19, our community was much excited over the working of "Robbins's 

 'hopperdozer," sent from Willcnar, on trial. It has taken like wild-fire, and I venture 

 to say that to-day (May 23) there are over 1,000 of these contrivances in operation, 

 capturing from two to five bushels per day psr pan. It consists of sheet-iron pan 7 to 

 9 feet long, back and sides turned up 6 inches, and front edge about three-fourths of an 

 inch, drawa by rope attached to wire rings 1|- feet from either end ; bottom and sides 

 thickly smeared with coal-tar, costing 10 cents per gallon by barrel ; pan drawn over 

 the ground very slowly. The efficiency of this simple contrivance is wonderful. One 

 gallon tar is good for a bushel of 'hoppers, when rightly used. Some use two pans, that 

 behind taking what the front passes over. Danilson and Cedar Mills are about the same, 

 if not worse, than this town. Everbody begins to realize the situation. — [J. M. How- 

 ard, Litchfield, Minn., May 23, 1877. 



Testimony is pouring in from all sides as to the wonderful success of that cheap little 

 contrivance of sheet-iron and coal-tar invented by Mr. Robbins in sweeping up and 

 destroying the grasshoppers. The people of Meeker County are so delighted and en- 

 courged by the success of the experiments which demonstrate the ease with which, by 

 means of this economical instrument, they can conquer the grasshoppers, that the 

 people of the whole county are organizing to sweep the county clear of the plague. 

 They have appointed a committee to take immediate steps to place these machines or the 

 sheet-iron and coal-tar of which they are constructed, within the reach of every farmer 

 in the county, and the county authorities have taken the responsibility of devoting to 

 that purpose a small sum of about $1,500 in the county treasury. So great a demand, 

 however, had sprung up for these materials, in consequence of the demand for the Rob- 

 bins's 'hopperdozer, that it was beginning to be difficult to procure them, and the com- 

 mittee therefore came down to Minneapolis and Saint Paul to enlist the efforts of the 

 governor, and he was so well satisfied of the efficacy of the sheet-iron and tar con- 

 trivance that he at once proceeded to make arrangements to furnish at cost all the coal- 



