54 
Besides turkeys, the common barnyard fowls also prove to be very 
efficient destroyers of locusts. This fact was abundantly attested in 
the case of an almond orchard containing about 360 acres; this orchard 
had been attacked by the migrating swarms which had spread over the 
greater portion of it. The house, barn, and other buildings were situ- 
ated nearly in the center of this orchard, and the barnyard fowls had 
been allowed to range among the trees immediately surrounding them; 
these trees covered perhaps 6 or 8 acres of land, and, at the time of my 
visit to this place on the 7th of August, presented a very different ap- 
pearance from those in the remaining portion of the orchard, remind- 
ing one somewhat of an oasis in the desert. All about them the trees 
had been nearly stripped of their leaves by the voracious locusts, while 
upon those growing in the area designated above but few of the leaves 
upon the trees had been eaten, owing to the persistent attacks of the 
barnyard fowls upon the invading locusts. 
In some localities the practice of driving the locusts out of the orchard 
was resorted to, and resulted in some cases in a fair degree of success. 
To accomplish this a band of men armed with clubs, shovels, etc., 
started in at the eastern side of the orchard, and forming a continuous 
line north and south, proceeded to drive the locusts before them, driv- 
ing them from tree to tree until they were driven completely out of the 
orchard. It was stated that after the locusts had been driven a certain 
distance they refused to go any farther, as if too tired, but after being 
allowed to rest for a short time they then permitted themselves to be 
driven before the advancing line of men. This driving was repeated 
six or seven times at short intervals, and in the majority of cases re- 
sulted in preventing the locusts from defoliating the trees. 
Some persons employed a somewhat different method of driving the 
locusts out of their orchards. A small pile of dry straw was placed on 
the west side of each tree in the orchard, and a small quantity of sul- 
phur thrown upon each pile; the most eastern piles of straw were first 
ignited, and the wind, blowing from the west, blew the sulphur smoke 
through the trees standing to the eastward of the burning straw; this 
caused the locusts to fly out of these trees, and as they always go almost 
straight against the wind, they would fly to the trees in the rows west 
of those they were smoked out of. The next row of straw piles was 
then set on fire, and this process was continued until the locusts had 
been driven entirely out of the orchard. In conversation with several 
persons who had tried this method I was informed that it resulted in a 
fair degree of success, while several others, who had also tried it, in- 
formed me that it was a complete failure, and that the locusts paid no 
heed whatever to the sulphur smoke. 
The practice of driving the locusts out of one orchard into another 
can hardly be approved upon general principles, as it is hardly fair for 
any man to drive the pests out of his own orchard into that of a neigh- 
bor. 
In the opening paragraph of the present chapter occurs the state- 
