158 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



order, so that the side next the field to be protected is 

 not allowed to wash out or become too hard. It may be 

 kept friable by brush or rake. They tumble into such a 

 ditch and accumulate, and die at the bottom in large quan- 

 tities. In a few days the stench becomes great, and neces- 

 sitates the covering up of the mass. In order to keep the 

 main ditch open, therefore, it is best to dig pits or deeper 

 side ditches at short intervals, in which the hoppers will 

 accumulate and may be buried. If a trench is made around 

 a field about hatching time, but few hoppers will get into 

 that field till they acquire wings, and by that time the 

 principal danger is over, and the insects are fast disap- 

 pearing. If any should hatch within the inclosure, they 

 are easily driven into the ditches dug in different parts of 

 the field. The direction of the apprehended approach of 

 the insects being known from their hatching locality, 

 ditching one or two sides next to such locality is generally 

 sufficient, and when farmers join they can construct a long 

 ditch which will protect many farms. 



I have not a doubt but that with proper and systematic 

 ditching early in the season, when the insects first hatch, 

 nearly everything can be saved. 



Just behind the fair-grounds at Kansas City, Mo., there 

 is an intelligent and industrious gardener, Mr. F. D. Ad- 

 kins, who, in 1875, had about three acres in vegetables. 

 The locusts hatched in large numbers all around Kansas 

 City, and nowhere more abundantly than in the imme- 

 diate vicinity of this truck-garden. Mr. Adkins, remem- 

 bering his experience with the same plague in 1867, perse- 

 vered in ditching for their destruction in 1875; and though 

 the surface of the country for miles and miles around was 

 desolate, yet this little three-acre field was untouched — a 

 perfect oasis in the desert, at once giving pleasure to the 

 eye, and speaking eloquently of what may be accomplished 



