Practical Considerations. 



171 



Nothing, however, will so surely insure those States 

 subject to them, against the ravages of this insect, as irri- 

 gation. With water at command, the farmer in all this 

 locust area is measurably master of his two greatest insect 

 plagues, the Chinch bug and the Locust, and full master of 

 the young locusts, either by inundating the land and 

 drowning them out after hatching, or by using kerosene 

 in the ditches ; and if there were no other reasons to be 

 urged in its favor, these are sufficient to warrant those 

 States included in said area in using all means in their 

 power in having schemes for irrigation perfected and 

 carried out, so far as the topography, soil, and other pecu- 

 liarities of the country will admit. 



Hogs and poultry of every description delight to feed 

 on the young hoppers, and will flourish where these 

 abound, when nothing else does. It will be well, in the 

 event of a future invasion, for the people in the invaded 

 districts to provide themselves with as large a quantity as 

 possible of this stock. Where no general and systematic 

 efforts have been made to destroy either the eggs or the 

 young locusts, and it is found that, as spring opens, these 

 young hatch out in threatening numbers, the intelligent 

 farmer will delay the planting of everything that can not 

 be protected by ditching, until the very last moment, or 

 till toward the end of June — using his team and time 

 solely in the preparation of his land. In this way not 

 only will he save his seed and the labor of planting, and, 

 perhaps, replanting, but he will materially assist in weak- 

 ening the devouring armies. Men planted in 1875, and 

 worked with a will and energy born of necessity, only to 

 see their crops finally taken, their seed gone, and their 

 teams and themselves worn out. The locusts ultimately 

 destroyed every green thing, until, finding nothing more, 

 they began to fall upon each other and to perish. This 



