36 



and down in the ditch, and this turned them aside for a while. There was 

 a cloudy day on which the locusts rested, but when the sun came out they 

 were ravenous, and there was no stopping them. They crossed the ditch, 

 and tilled the straw-lire so full as to extinguish it. He called in his neigh- 

 bors to see what would happen to them if the locusts were allowed to keep 

 on in their course, and live or six turned out with teams, hauling straw- 

 YVith this they burned over a strip three or four rods wide and a hundred 

 rods long, along the edge of the held. But in spite of all his efforts, the lo- 

 custs had made their way into his wheat, and by this time he had finished a 

 catching-net. The next day, in live hours, he caught from 15 to 20 bushels. 

 This was continued daily, until 75 or 80 bu-hcls had been caught, and it was 

 not necessary to use it, except as occasion demanded on certain days, or in 

 certain spots where the locusts were thickest. This work was so effectual 

 that there should have been (except for drouth) a fair crop of wheat, or at 

 least half a crop all over the farm, except where the burning was done. 

 This demonstrates the possibility of one farmer's fighting two farmers' lo- 

 custs, and still saving half a crop." 



CATCHING-MACHINES. 



Many other isolated cases of persistent and partially successful 

 efforts in saving crops from the young locusts have occurred this 

 year: I mention these because they have been reported more fully 

 than others. It also shows what can be done with- machines in 

 the later part of the season, and what might have been done by 

 attacking the locusts in their hatching-grounds instead of waiting 

 for them to approach the grain. The coming spring seems likely 

 to test what can be done with catching-machines. Not only are 

 several elaborate ones patented or prepared for use when the time 

 comes, but many farmers are already preparing such machines after 

 their own fashions. To those who are deterred by cost or by lark 

 of a model, it should be said that an efficient machine can be made 

 tit a cost of a few poles or strips of board, a pair of wheels, a few 

 yards of stout canvas, and just sufficient ingenuity to construct a 

 long, open-mouthed bag to run over the fields with its lower edge 

 near the ground, and running back in the rear to a sack to contain 

 the locusts that are caught. Mr. King's net was such, and cap- 

 tured from two to eighteen bushels per day, depending on the size 

 and age of the locusts. 



Mr. Danforth's machine consisted of two wheels, connected by 

 an axle 20 feet long and six inches in diameter; this was made of 

 a stout pole obtained from the woods, and it was necessary that it 

 should be so large and strong, for the loads of young locusts cap- 

 tured were sometimes so heavy as to bend even this badly. Across 

 the top of this axle two poles, of about the same diameter as the 



