33 
nest again, while, on the contrary, many injurious insects, like the 
chinch-bug, for instance, are killed ; so that, even leaving the locust 
question out of consideration, the burning proves beneficial by extermi- 
nating other noxious insects, and has some advantages from an agri- 
cultural point of view. 
As locusts disperse more and more from their hatching-grounds into 
the prairie as they develop, burning the grass in spring is beneficial in 
proportion as it is delayed. 
Machines for burning have been used in several localities with con- 
siderable success. Mr. J. Hetzel, of Lougmont, Colo., has employed a 
machine drawn by horses. It is 12 feet long, from 2 to 2^ feet wide, 
made of iron, and set ou runners 4 inches high. An open grate on the 
top of the runners is filled with pitch-pine wood, a metal sheet covering 
the grate to keep the heat directed downward. The grate is generally 
made with a net- work of heavy wire, such as telegraph wire. Two men 
and a team can readily burn from 10 to 12 acres a day and kill two- 
thirds of the insects, but for this it requires a hot fire. 
Mr. 0. G. Horner gives a more detailed description in the Colorado 
Farmer of a machine of somewhat similar construction : 
It consists of three runners, made of 2 by 4 scantling, 3 feet in length, to be placed 
6 feet apart, making the machine 12 feet wide ; runners to be bound together by 
three flat straps or bars of iron (the base being 12 feet long). Across the top, bars of 
iron hold the runners firmly together, and form a frame across which wire can be 
worked to make a grate to hold fire. The upper part of the runners should be hollowed 
out so that the grate may slide along within 2 inches of the ground. A sheet-iron 
arch should be set over this grate to drive the heat downward. This machine is very 
light, and can be worked with one horse. Pitch wood is best adapted to burning, 
and can be chopped the right length and size and left in piles where most convenient 
when needed. This machine is intended to be used when the little 'hoppers just 
make their appearance along the edge of the grain, going over the ground once or 
twice each day, or as often as necessary to keep them killed off. The scorching does 
not kill the grain, but makes it a few days later. This is cerainly the cheapest as 
well as the most effectual manner of getting rid of this pest. 
Hand burners, consisting of any form of pan or grate, or wire sieves, 
with handle attached, to hold combustible material, will do excellent 
service in gardens and small inclosures. 
There is another method by which large numbers of locusts can be 
burned, consisting merely of a bundle of rags or tow, which, after being- 
attached to long wire or iron rods and saturated with kerosene, can be 
ignited and carried over the field. This method has been quite satis- 
factorily used in Colorado. A stout wire, say 10 feet loug, is thoroughly 
enveloped in rags soaked in coal oil. A small wire is wound around the 
rags to keep them in place, and the simple device is complete. Two 
men carry this rope, after setting fire to the rags, across the field to 
and fro until the fuel is exhausted, and as it is not necessary to pass 
over the same ground more than once or twice, a large field of grain 
can be thus protected during the half hour or so that the rags burn. 
The effect is that of a miniature prairie fire. 
