6 
A (litcli 3 feet wide, unless correspondingly deep, will be more apt 
to permit the escape of the insects when once in than a nari'ower one. 
In hopping, the more perpendicular the direction the insects must take 
the shorter will be the distance reached. Of conrse, the wider the 
ditcb, if it be correspondingly deep, the more etfectual will it prove. In 
exceptional cases, when the locnsts are nearly fnll grown and the wind 
is high, so as to assist them, even the two-feet ditch loses much of its 
value. 
Xext to ditching, the use of nets or seines, or converging strips of 
calico or any other material, made after the plan of a quail-net, has 
proved most satisfactory. By digging a pit, or boring a post-auger hole 
3 or 4 feet deep, and then staking the two ',wings so that they con- 
verge toward it, large numbers of the locusts maybe driven into thei 
pit after the dew is off the ground. By changing the position of this 
trap, much good can be done when the insects are yet small an<t huddled 
in schools. But all modes of bagging, netting, crushing with the spade 
or other tlat implements, and burning, which can be emplo3'ed to good 
advantage when the insects first begin to hatch, become comparatively 
useless when they begin to travel in concert over wide stretches of land. 
The same may be said of all the mechanical contrivances to facilitate 
the destruction of the insects ; they are usefnl if used in concert in a 
given neighborhood soon after the young hatch, but subsequently do 
not compare to ditching. There are a number of contrivances that have 
been more or less successfully used, but we cannot treat of all of them 
in detail. We shall, rather, at this time, content ourselves with descrip- 
tions of a few. which will illustrate the principles to be kept in view. 
Those used in Minnesota, so far as we can learn, are applications of 
one principle, viz, an open-mouthed bag, dragged by hand or horsepower. 
We have seen a very large one that would take from eight to twelve 
bushels of pupje per day ; but this was after the insects had been pretty 
eifectually fought by burning and otherwise. It was very effective. Its 
owner ])roposes to place his whole dependence on it next year. It had 
one addition over others that we think valuable. It ran back 10 feet 
or more to a bag, and near the rear end two or three square feet of cloth 
had been cut out and replaced by wire gauze. This gave a chance for 
the air to draw through, and as the locusts worked toward the i^ear end 
they made way toward the light shining through the wire. This machine 
w^as rigged on cart-wheels, and the only expense was in getting three 
long poles from the woods, and in purchasing about forty yards of cot- 
ton muslin. 
Maj. J. G. Thoinpson, of Garden City, Minn., has used with satisfac- 
tion a net made as follows: 
Two pieces of commou batten about 16 feet long were used as frame-xrork for the 
mouth of the net, one for the bottom and one for the top. From the end of the bottom 
piece a wooden shoe of the same material ran back about 6 feet to steady the trap and 
seFve as a runner. To the rear end of this shoe a similar piece was fastened by a hinge, 
and ran forward and was fastened to the top piece of the frame, so that the mouth of 
the trap would open and shut like a jaw. To hold the mouth open, two short ujiright 
posts were fastened to the top piece by a hinge, and rested upright npou the bed-piece. 
The net itself was made of cotton cloth for the bottom, and the top was made of mos- 
quito-netting. The month of the net extended 16 feet from one side of the trap to the 
other, and the net ran back about 6 feet to a point with a hole at the end to let out the 
insects collected. A boy ten years old can draw one end of this net, and by the use of 
it Major Thompson saved one piece of wheat. 
Similar machines have been drawn by horses hitched to each side of 
the trap, being 12 to 16 feet apart. The horses serve the purpose of 
driving the locusts inward toward the mouth of the net. There have 
