229 
prolonged over such a long period of time, making it necessary to repeat 
the burning operation almost every day for a period of several weeks. 
The expense of such repeated burnings would in most cases amount to 
more than the corn crop was worth. 
At my suggestion Mr. W. P. Moomaw made a test of the mixture of 
bran, arsenic, and sugar, which had been used in California with such 
success against various kinds of grasshoppers, but which had not, to 
my knowledge, ever been tried against the present species. It consists 
of six parts by weight of bran, to one each of arsenic and sugar. The 
bran is placed in a barrel or other convenient receptacle and the 
arsenic added and thoroughly stirred through the bran: the sugar is 
next dissolved in cold water and added to the mixture and the whole 
thoroughly stirred : water is then added until the mixture is wet in 
every part, after which it is taken to the held and distributed in heaps 
containing a tablespoonful each, or it may be sown broadcast, care 
being taken not to put it out where any livestock or barnyard fowls 
have access to it. In the present instance it was placed in clover 
and corn-fields and in an apple orchard, where both the winged and 
wingless grasshoppers were T>resent in large numbers. It was distrib- 
uted rather early in the morning, and shortly after it was placed upon 
the ground numbers of the grasshoppers were attracted to and greed- 
ily fed upon it. Sot only were the wingless ones attracted, but the 
winged ones as well, and these were observed coming from a distance 
of several feet direct to the mixture, as if attracted to it by the sense 
of smell. The arsenic is very slow in its effect. A wingless individual 
lived for about eight hours after having partaken of the mixture, while 
a winged one lived several hours longer than this. It will thus hap- 
pen that only a comparatively small proportion of those killed by the 
mixture will be found in its immediate neighborhood. Even the wing- 
less ones will sometimes manage to travel a distance of seventy-five or 
eighty feet before being overcome by the poison. The favorite resting 
place of the grasshoppers was in or beneath the tall weeds, and under 
one of these sometimes as many as thirty dead ones could be counted 
the day after the mixture was distributed. 
The best time for using this mixture would have been shortly after 
the wheat was harvested. By placing the mixture along the sides of 
the wheat-fields adjoining the growing crops, the grasshoppers, in 
migrating to the latter, would have found and been destroyed by the 
poisoned mixture. The latter is comparatively inexpensive, and after 
it has once been distributed in the fields requires no further attention, 
as it will retain its poisonous quality and still be attractive to the 
grasshoppers several weeks after being put out. 
8359— No. 3 2 
