THE PLAGUE LOCUST OF NATAL. 173 



the area infested. The season of 1901-2 cost us £494 ; that of 1902-3, 

 £'8,000, and that of 1903-4, £4,500. For this year's campaign Parlia- 

 ment has voted £4,600. The appreciation of the value of this work — 

 for the money is saved over and over again in crops and in the preven- 

 tion of famine among the natives — is strongly evidenced at this 

 present moment. Despite a falling revenue and severe retrenchment 

 in every branch of administration, the locust vote stands intact. 



Now, what we do is simply this : We destroy all the progeny of the 

 locusts which come into the country. By attacking them at this 

 season we prevent the destruction of young crops throughout the 

 growing season, and we have no winged locust swarms feeding about 

 the country for nine months in the year. Occasional swarms of 

 invading locusts will appear in Natal as early as August — they come, 

 I believe, from the native territories to the south of us — but their 

 mischief is very slight. November and December see the main 

 invasion. Hordes of locusts fly in clouds from north to south across 

 the county. These insects, however, do not feed, and simply migrate 

 southward to oviposit. 



Just one word in conclusion with regard to the " locust poison." 

 Our old formula used to be : 



Pounds. 



White arsenic 1 



Washing soda * 



Treacle or treacle sugar 6 



Boil in 2 gallons of water for one-fourth of an hour, then add sufficient water 

 to make 16 gallons of solution. 



For the past three years, however, we have adopted arsenite of 

 soda with equally efficient results : 



Arsenite of soda pound 1 



Treacle or treacle sugar pounds__ 4-5 



Water gallons 15 



Treacle is used only when mills are convenient. Treacle sugar is 

 just as efficacious. To-day I have just made payment for 8 tons of 

 this commodity, 5 of which will be used in our work in the wilds 

 of Zululand. The young locusts are passionately fond of the sirup, 

 and you can see them lapping up the drops of liquid on the grass 

 stems. The treacle aroma entices them to their death, when otherwise 

 they might pass by the poison. 



To you the amount of poison used will appear enormous, and so it 

 is ; but what we want is rapid work. To see the locusts dead before 

 passing to a new camp is the most satisfactory way of knowing that 

 the work is well done, and, further, in the last molt we find that the 

 poison is none too strong. 



The effect of the arsenic upon grass lands is purely temporary. 

 Cattle feeding over the land afterwards have suffered no deleterious 



