1877. ] The Rocky Mountain Locust. 667 
with Governor Morris, on the subject, and they see nothing im- 
practicable in the plan. We have on this side the line a number of 
signal stations and military posts in the country where the insect 
breeds. Now, I would have our own military force coéperate with 
the Dominion police force as a locust vigilance committee. Under 
the intelligent guidance and direction of some special commission- 
er or commission, I would have that whole country systematically 
studied every year by such a force, with reference to the abun- 
dance or scarcity of the locusts. I would have such a vigilance 
force, by a proper system of fire-guards and surveillance, prevent 
the fall fires in sections where the insects or their eggs were 
known to abound, in order to burn them at the proper time the 
following spring; and where such precaution wa’ not possible or 
had failed, and the winged insects at any season were numerous, 
I would have their movements carefully watched, and communi- 
cated daily to the signal officers, to be by them communicated to 
the farmers. In this way the latter could be fully forewarned 
of approaching danger. I'would have the Western farmers adopt 
some general plan of defense against possible invasion. The 
straw that is now allowed to rot in sightless masses as it comes 
from the thrasher, and that encumbers the ground unless burned, 
should be utilized. Let it be stacked in small pyramids at every 
field corner, and there let it remain until the locusts are descend- 
ing upon the country. Then let the farmers in a township or a 
county, or in larger areas, simultaneously fire these pyramids, 
using whatever else is at hand to slacken combustion and increase 
the smoke, and the combined fumigation would partially or en- 
tirely drive the insects away, according as the swarm was ex- 
tended or not. In short, not to weary you, I believe, first, that 
by proper coöperation on the part of the two governments inter- 
ested, the excessive multiplication of this destructive insect may 
be measurably prevented in its natural breeding-grounds, and 
that the few thousand dollars that would be necessary to put into 
operation intelligent codperative plans were most trifling in view 
of the vast interests at stake. In fact, with an efficient and prop- 
erly organized department of agriculture, liberally supported by- 
Congress, and aided by the war department and the signal bu- 
reau, the plan could soon be perfected and carried out at mini- 
mum expense. I believe, secondly, that where the insect’s mul- 
tiplication cannot be prevented in its natural breeding-grounds 
our farmers in the more thickly-settled sections may, by the use 
of smoke, measurably turn the course of invading swarms and 
