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JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 



[Vol. 8 



Me. George A. Dean: Did he scatter it as thin as twenty pounds 

 to five acres? 



Mr. W. S. Regan: Yes. He used only about ten pounds for a 

 trial and this amount was scattered over an area of several acres ac- 

 cording to his statement. I could hardly believe anything else could 

 be responsible for it under the conditions. 



Mr. George A. Dean: In our work we often receive reports of it 

 killing chickens and turkeys. We have taken the trouble in several 

 cases to investigate these reports but in no case have we found any 

 evidence of arsenical poisoning. In several cases where the fowls were 

 dead, death seemingly was due to eating too many of the hoppers. 

 The hind legs of the hoppers had caused a stoppage and apparently 

 death was due to inflammation. It is nothing uncommon to lose a 

 number of young turkeys if they are allowed to gorge themselves on 

 grasshoppers. A young turkey, like some other animals, when it finds 

 something good to eat hasn't any more sense than to eat too much. If 

 barnyard fowls are obliged to run down the grasshoppers they are not 

 so apt to gorge themselves, but if they find large numbers of dying 

 grasshoppers in under trees or in shady places they are very apt to 

 overload in feeding on them. As stated before, if a person uses a 

 little judgment in the distribution of the bran mash, there is no danger 

 of it injuring birds or barnyard fowls. I might state that Kansas 

 stands very high in the number of species of birds, and after distribut- 

 ing almost a thousand tons of bran mash, as w^e did in the summer of 

 1913, it would seem that if birds were eating a sufficient amount of the 

 bran mash to kill them, we would have at least a few cases to report. 



President H. T. Fernald: The State Ornithologist of Massachu- 

 setts looked into some reported cases in Massachusetts and was satis- 

 fied that the birds were killed by eating the mash — though how thor- 

 oughly he investigated I cannot say. 



Mr. E. G. TitI'S: A few years ago we had occasion to take up the 

 question of chickens dying in an orchard where poisoned bran mash 

 had been used. On opening their stomachs, none of the bran mash 

 was found, but in every case they were filled with grasshoppers, and 

 it appeared that they had died by being choked with excessive num- 

 bers of these insects. We also found on examination that no injury 

 resulted to sparrows in sections where the poisoned mash was used. 



A Member : I would like to say that a careful observer in Michigan 

 reports that birds will not touch poisoned bran if orange or lemon 

 juice is used in it. 



Mr. W. S. Regan: We had very good success with barriers to pre- 

 vent the migration of the army worm caterpillars. First, the plowed 

 furrow retarded their advance. Powdered air-slaked lime dusted 



