16 REPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
nothing further would be necessary ; but when we take into considera- 
tion the vast extent of this area, and the fact that a very large portion of 
it cannot be brought under cultivation without a material change in the 
climatic conditions, there appears but little hope that such a means of 
actual extermination will ever be devised, however much we may hope 
to check the injurious increase of the pest by the means recommended 
in the concluding chapter of this report. Our discussion of the future 
prospects of this region in reference to agriculture may as well therefore 
proceed on this basis. This may appear to be an abandonment of the 
hopes held out in our first report, but if the reader will examine that 
report carefully he will see that we there based these hopes upon the 
possibility of man being able, by the advancement in science and the 
knowledge of natural laws, to modify tin- climatic condition.- of that 
region. At present we are proceeding upon the basis of the want of 
the knowledge as to how this desired end is to be accomplished. 
It was thought that a plan for a general burning over the areas in 
which the locusts hatch, if done while they aie in the larv a state and 
properly carried out, would be one of the most effectual means of de- 
stroying them. 
Theoretically the plan appears to be a good one, and although entail- 
ing considerable labor and expense, if it would prove as effectual prac- 
tically as it appears theoretically, might be carried out under govern- 
ment authority and the expense justified. 
But there an- practical difficulties which decrease our hope of obtain- 
ing relief in this way, and we will present these in tin- strongest light 
here, as we shall recur to the subject in another chapter, and the expe- 
rience of individual commissioners differs somewhat upon it. 
First, the region over which the patches of egg deposits are scattered 
is so great, including an area of at least 500,000 square miles, that noth- 
ing short of an absolute certainty of forever exterminating this pest 
would justify the government in entering upon so formidable an under- 
taking. The actual area occupied in this region in any one year by egg 
deposits is, as a matter of course, but a small portion of this immense 
district, probably never amounting to more than 25,000 or 30,000 square 
miles, except in the years of greatest development. But supposing 
there was no other difficulty in the way than the labor and expense, it 
would still be a formidable undertaking, considering the widely scat- 
tered position of these areas of egg deposits ; yet a certainty of accom- 
plishing the desired end would justify the attempt by the general gov- 
ernment. 
As a very general rule, egg deposits, except in cultivated districts, 
are made where there is more or less grass, never being made in per- 
fectly barren areas, and very seldom made in wood lands ; this would 
appear to favor the theory. 
But in order that burning may be effectual, it must be done after the 
locusts are hatched and before they have acquired wings, as burning 
