338 Forty-fourth Report of the State Mlseum 



have already organized a department of entomology, or of entomology 

 and botany united — the two studies being intimately connected in 

 the interrelation of insect injuries and plant diseases. The valuable 

 work accomplished by these entomologists has been shown in several 

 publications, in bulletins of the stations, etc., which have been highly 

 creditable, and, undeniably, contributionR of much economic import- 

 ance; and further, giving assurance of rich results to follow. 



Operations Against the Rocky Mountain Locust. 



I can not refrain from referring, in illustration of the character and 

 value of the work that is being done in insect warfare, by the experi- 

 ment stations, to that recently conducted at the Minnesota Experiment 

 Station, by its very able entomologist, Dr. Otto Lugger. It was an 

 effort to save from destruction the crops of a section in Otter Tail 

 county from the descendants of a few Rocky Mountain locusts, 

 Galoptenus spretus, that had located there in 1884, and at the time that 

 active operations against them we're commenced (in 1888) had hatched 

 in numbers sufficient, as estimated, not only to destroy the entire crops 

 of that county but of a large portion of the state. The preceding 

 year five thousand acres of wheat had been swept away. In this 

 emergency appeal was made to the Governor of the state for aid. 

 Dr. Lugger was commissioned by him to visit the locality and report 

 upon the situation. Upon his report the Governor at once sent to the 

 infested region the material that was asked for in sheet-iron for 

 making large pans to contain tar and kerosene, and muslin for the 

 construction of bags, in which to catch and kill the *' hoppers." By 

 means of these, fifty and more bushels of locusts (nearly all young 

 and requiring, at the least, seven thousand individuals to make a 

 bushel) were caught and killed daily near Perham during a week in 

 June. By the 1st of July, from a low estimate, twenty-five hundred 

 bushels had been killed. The labor required was paid for by the 

 county commissioners, with the promise of being returned by the state, 

 which was thereafter done. Later, it was determined to pay a bounty 

 for catching and killing the hoppers, and one dollar a bushel was 

 offered by the county commissioners. As the " hopper-dozers," the 

 popular name for the ten-feet long sheet-iron pans which had proved ao 

 efficient, did not hold the insects that were swept into them, but 

 allowed perhaps four-fifths of the number to jump from the oil to 

 die thereafter on the ground, another device was resorted to. This 

 was known as the "balloon hopper-catcher," and consisted of a frame 

 of strips of wood, 18 feet long, to lie flat on the ground, and carrying 

 upon it a large, loose bag of cheese-cloth, with a spout made of a sack 



