1 



that illustrated in fig. 4. It consists of six attached strips of osnaburg 

 6 feet long, with light poles attached to the ends. The sheet was kept 

 moist with coal tar and was dragged by a mule along all the ditch 

 banks and even down in the ditches where this was possible. Several 

 of these sheets were made and kept actively at work while the grass- 

 hoppers were young, and great numbers of the insects were thus 

 collected. While these sheets possess the merit of not breaking the 

 young corn and cotton and of catching myriads of the grasshoppers, 

 it is to be regretted that they soon wore out when dragged over culti- 

 tivated areas. 



The hopperdozer. which was finally constructed and which possessed 



Fig. 4. — Patterson tarred sheet: «, strip of wood supporting sheet: b, strip oi osnaburg: c. guide rope ; 



d, hitch rope (original). 



much merit when run diagonally over the rows of cotton and corn, 

 consisted of three runners 3 inches high and 2 feet long, a pan of cor- 

 rugated or sheet iron, and a back of osnaburg. (See fig. 5.) 



Two more contrivances for catching young grasshoppers are to be 

 recommended. These are of value during dry weather when it is 

 impossible to hold the rain water in the ditches, or to till them from 

 the river or neighboring bayous by irrigating pumps. One is a hop- 

 perdozer sufficiently narrow to run in plantation ditches and light 

 enough to be handled by a man upon the sloping ditch banks. They 

 will prove serviceable, too. upon limited egg areas when the young 

 are emerging. The other is a tarred strip of osnaburg just as long as 



