23 
Many interesting and marvelous stories have been told of the crick ets r 
how they fill up irrigating ditches, get into the flumes of mills, stop- 
ping the wheels with the mass of their bodies, and filling rivers, form- 
ing bridges so that the advancing army cross over safely on the dead 
bodies of their comrades, etc. I can readily believe them, for when 
their great size is taken into account, together with the countless mil- 
lions in which they occur, and the well-known propensity to go straight 
ahead, turning neither to the right nor left, one can readily understand 
that an obstruction will soon take place if the advancing army keeps 
on its course. It is a standing joke that the crickets will not turn 
aside for a telegraph pole if it is in their path, but will go up one side 
and down the other to keep in the line of their journey. It is a 
well-known fact that a stream of water is no obstacle to their advance- 
ment, as they leap in when they come to it as if the stream were 
not there. In this way many perish. What another season has in 
store for the people of the infested sections of Idaho is a question 
fraught with great concern, and can be determined only by waiting 
patiently the outcome. 
Eggs are being deposited over the entire area overrun by the hun- 
gry horde, from Snake Eiver to the mountains, and if the increase in 
numbers in 1894 is in the same ratio as that of the two past seasons^ 
there will not be a green thing left in the valley. As they travel at 
the rate of a mile a day they may overrun a considerable part of the 
adjacent territory before this time next year. 
Laying their eggs as they do, in so many and in such inaccessible 
places, often on the tops of mountains, it is impracticable to apply any 
preventive measures to them in that stage. Since, as Mr. Daugherty, 
before quoted, says, <*they show especial activity, good health, and bad 
morals," the prospect of being able to check their increase by the intro- 
duction of contagious or infectious diseases among them, as my friend 
Chancellor Snow, of Kansas, has been able to do among the chinch 
bugs of that State, seems quite remote. Since they move in such vast 
bodies and have such cannibalistic tendencies, being disposed to feast 
upon one another when other food is short, it would not be "difficult to 
inoculate them if the proper virus could be found for the purpose. 
The best preventive measure that I have seen applied is to fence 
them out. This is easily done. 
A board 6 inches or more in width placed on edge and provided with 
a strip of tin bent to an angle, and projecting outward from the top of 
the board, will effectually exclude the insects from the field if they are 
not allowed to find holes under, or defects in the construction, by which 
they can find passages through the fence. They will not jump over 6 
inches. They may crawl up the side of the board until they come to 
the overhanging tin caps, when they fall to the ground, but can not 
cross. Often they will accumulate in such heaps as to form bridges 
higher than the fence and the advancing forces will cross over on the 
