418 REPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



Wbile every one of these suggestions might be carried out in excep- 

 tional cases to advantage, and it is the intention of the Commission to 

 endeavor to acclimate certain foreign locust-feeding birds j yet the last 

 two methods are the only ones which at present we have any faith in as 

 capable of sufficiently general application or as resulting in general 

 good. The first question to consider is whether the insects can be pre- 

 vented from migrating from their permanent breeding-grounds, and — 

 considering excessive multiplication the immediate cause of migration — 

 this virtually means whether they can be prevented from becoming 

 excessively multiplied in such breeding-grounds. At first view it 

 would seem hopeless to attempt anything of the sort, and a year ago 

 we had such a vague and imperfect knowledge of these permanent 

 breeding-grounds that any proposition looking to wholesale destruction 

 of tlie insects in them would have appeared Utopian. But we have 

 learned enough of the laws governing the movements of the species and 

 of the country designated as the Permanent region to give us faith, not 

 only in the possibility of thus keeping the species in check east of the 

 Eocky Mountains, but in its feasibility. 



There is a popular notion that this pest breeds in and comes from 

 sandy, desert countries. It is a popular error. The insect cannot live 

 on sand, nor does it willingly oviposit in a loose, sandy soil. It does 

 not thrive on cacti and sage-bush. It flourishes most on land clothed 

 with grass, in which, when young, it can huddle and shelter. It can. 

 multiply prodigiously on those plains only that offer a tolerably rich 

 vegetation — not rank and humid, as in much of the prairie of Illinois, 

 Missouri, &c., but short and dry — such as is found over much of the 

 prairies and plains of the Northwest. IS'ow, the destruction of the 

 eggs, which is so practicable and effectual in settled and cultivated sec- 

 tions, is out of the question in those vast unsettled prairies; but the 

 destruction of the young locusts is possible. Those immense prairies 

 are not only susceptible of easy burning, but it is difficult to prevent 

 the fire from sweeping over them. Some system of preventing the ex- 

 tensive prairie-fires in autumn that are common in that country, and 

 then subsequently firing the prairie in the spring, after the bulk of the 

 young hatch, and before the new grass gets too rank, w^ould be of untold 

 value if it could be adopted. The more we study the question, and the 

 more we learn of those breeding-grounds, the more feasible the i>lan 

 grows in our minds. The Dominion Government has, fortunately, a 

 well-organized mounted police force, which constantly patrols through 

 the very regions where the insects breed north of our line. This force 

 is intended to see that the peace is kept, to watch the Indians, to en- 

 force the laws, and perform other police duties. It could be utilized, 

 without impairing its efficiency as a police force, in the work we have 

 indicated, or it might be augmented for that same work. We have 

 conversed with the ministers of agriculture and of the interior, and 

 with Governor Morris, on the subject, and they see nothing impracti- 

 cable in the plan. Indeed, it was suggested by Mr. Dawson in his first 



