Practical Considerations . 



173 



assistance to the farmers of the West, by warning them 

 of coming danger. If, as I believe, the disastrous swarms 

 which reach the southeastern country come from the ex- 

 treme Northwest, there is no reason why, by increasing 

 the number of signal stations in that region, the move- 

 ments of large swarms should not be daily recorded, and 

 the farmers to the East and Southeast be apprised of their 

 probable coming for weeks in advance. The people might 

 not, it is true, greatly benefit by the information, except 

 in preparing and providing for the possible contingency ; 

 but by thus recording the movements of swarms, we shall 

 in a few years come to know more about the native breed- 

 ing places and habits of the species, and as the Bureau 

 perfects its work, we may, through it, learn the fall before, 

 when the insects have become unduly multiplied, or have 

 laid enormous quantities of eggs, over large areas in their 

 native habitat, and when, in consequence, an invasion the 

 following year is probable ; in which event a larger pro- 

 portion of small grains and other crops that escape the 

 ravages of the fall swarms, can be planted in the threat- 

 ened country. 



As to the best means of disposing of the slaughtered lo- 

 custs, the easiest and most generally employed are burning 

 and burying. Yet the insects might be turned to good 

 advantage as manure, or sun-dried and preserved in cakes 

 to feed to hogs, poultry, etc., and where large quantities 

 are destroyed under a bounty system, some such means 

 of making the most of them should be considered. 



As a means of assisting farmers in the destruction of the 

 unfledged locusts by trenches and in other ways, I would 

 also urge the employment of the military, a large force of 

 whom, in times of peace, could be ordered to the field at 

 short notice. As I have elsewhere remarked :* "To many, the 



* Proc. Am. Ass. Adv. Sc., 1875. B. 219. 



