BA 
very probable that this, as well as the suitability and abundance of the 
food, may be considered an important factor in the rapid increase of 
the species in the last three or four years, an increase that has taken 
place directly with the cultivation of alfalfa by irrigation. 
It would seem aiso that this habit renders the insect especially open 
to attack, and I see no reason why concentrated effort may not entirely 
prevent a repetition of the damage another year. 
MEASURES RECOMMENDED. 
The situation, it seems to me, is one deserving serious attention, but 
one which offers every hope for successful work, if the residents of the 
affected localities can but be induced to make a little effort at the 
proper time. ; 
_ The injury for the present season is mainly past, as the grasshoppers 
are in large part mature, many aiready pairing, and the loss of the 
seed erop, the heaviest part of the loss, beyond repair. The effort, 
therefore, must be toward preventing the damage another year, and it 
Seems to me very desirable that the Division should distribute to the 
people of this section a careful set of directions for their guidance this — 
fall and next spring in working against the grasshoppers. 
The means which appear to me from inspection of the ground to 
promise most successful results would be as follows: 
(1) To thoroughly break up the surface of the ground in and along 
the ditches before winter by harrowing thoroughly, cultivating or shal- 
low plowing, thus exposing the eggs to winter weather and natural 
enemies. | 
(2) Wherever practicable, to food the ground for a day or two at the 
time young locusts are hatching. I was told that the young hoppers 
were entirely unaffected by water, as they would crawl up the alfalfa 
stems and escape, and it is probable that sufficient flooding to accom- 
plish much good in this region is out of the question. My only hope 
in this line would be in watching carefully for the time of hatching, 
and using the water before the hoppers had obtained any growth, and — 
if abundant along the ditches, putting a little kerosene on the water. 
(3) A use of the hopperdozer as early in the season as possible, when 
I believe the treatment of a strip eight or ten feet wide on each side of 
the ditches would destroy so large a part of their numbers as to prevent 
any serious damage. As I learned from a number of parties the hop- 
pers are scarcely half grown when the first crop is cut, it would seem 
that immediately after cutting the first crop would be the best time to 
use the hopperdozer. The hoppers would be large enough to jump 
readily and the dozers could be run very easily. It would be difficult 
to use them at any other time than directly after a crop was eut, as the 
dense growth of alfalfa would obstruct their movement. 
My strongest recommendation would be the urging of effort in break- _ 
ing up egg masses before winter, and then in case locusts still appear — 
