16 



feet long and 6 feet wide, there was almost a solid mat of nests." We 

 were informed by Mr. James earl} 7 in May that upon this roadbed, 

 which had been thoroughly cultivated even as late as March 12, few 

 of the eggs hatched, and this single experience convinced him of the 

 value of winter cultivation. In the Delta, as far south as the State 

 of Mississippi, warm, summer-like spells of weather often occur in 

 winter, and fertile eggs exposed to such conditions invariably hatch, 

 with the result that the .young perish during subsequent winter 

 weather, while eggs in pods just below the surface of the ground do 

 not hatch until the latter part of April or early in May. It is there- 

 fore evident that the practice of fall, and even spring, cultivation is 

 one of the most available means of destroying grasshopper eggs. 



Unfortunately, upon plantations of many thousand acres, and espe- 

 cially upon those where a number of waste tracts occur, it is impossible 

 to find all of the egg areas and to effect the remed} 7 of winter cultiva- 

 tion. 



• The use of kerosene upon egg -beds at the time of hatching. — One or 

 two seasons' experience with grasshoppers greatly quickens the pow- 

 ers of observation, and egg-beds not discovered in the fall and winter 

 ma} T be detected the first week in May by the presence of the young 

 grasshoppers. Upon Dahomy spray pumps were kept actively at work 

 upon egg areas, spraying each with 12 per cent coal-oil emulsion at 

 least once a day. It often happened that as many 3 T oung grasshoppers 

 were in evidence the day following each application, but careful obser- 

 vation soon revealed the fact that only those hatching after the emul- 

 sion had been applied survived, and those were killed by the next 

 spra} 7 ing. While the emulsion spra} 7 was found expensive when com- 

 pared with that of cultivation, yet in the face of such conditions as 

 prevailed in the Mississippi Delta its effectiveness many times out- 

 weighed the expense. Applications of coal tar were not made to the 

 egg-beds, but there is ever} T reason to belieA^e that this substance would 

 also have proven useful. The use of coal tar in the hopperdozer and 

 upon the drag sheets certainly warrant a trial of it upon egg areas. 



Spraying ditches. — The experience in spraying ditch banks soon 

 developed the cheaper and perhaps more effective method of destroy- 

 ing young grasshoppers, that of damming water in the ditches and 

 covering the surface with coal oil or coal-oil emulsion. Before and 

 after rains the ditches were dammed and the water covered with a 12 

 per cent coal-oil emulsion. The young grasshoppers were then driven 

 into the ditches, with the result that very few, if any, escaped. In 

 this way a single application of oil would last several days, as many 

 millions may easily float upon the water of a ditch not more than 2 

 feet wide. Unless the grasshoppers are scattered too far from the 

 ditch banks no difficulty is experienced in getting them to move in the 



