OTHEE PEOPOSED PLANS NOT FEASIBLE. 
25 
the temporary region. The possibility of inundating to a considerable 
extent their egg deposits by the winter supply of water would tend to 
diminish their numbers. The fact that their breeding-grounds are 
chiefly in the limited agricultural areas is also another argument in favor 
of the plan. 
That large areas would be left where locusts breed, and pour down 
on the nearest cultivated areas, as in Western Colorado, is certainly true, 
but this does not lessen the value of the plan proposed, nor is it a reason 
why it should not be put into operation. 
Other proposed schemes for destroying or preventing the multiplication 
of locusts in their native habitats. — Mr. Ellwood Cooper, of Santa Bar- 
bara, Cal., writing to the Commission in 1877, makes the following state- 
ment and suggestion : 
I have found on my ranch of 2,000 acres that these beds of (egg) deposit do not 
amount to more than five or six acres. I marked these places so that when the rainy 
season came I could plow the ground and thus destroy the eggs, and while grasshoppers 
were produced by the millions on adjoining ranches none were hatched on my place. 
* The conclusion is, that it is not a question to be solved by meteorologists, scientists, or 
naturalists, but one for the plodding farmer, and that their total destruction is a mat- 
ter easy, simple, and not expensive. It is a question of the plow — deep and thorough 
plowing of all the breeding-grounds. This will require a concert of action on the part 
of the Government of the United States and the governors of all the Western States. 
Let there be appointed for each Territory five commissioners and as many for each 
State where they have suffered from the ravages of this insect. The duties of these 
commissioners [to be] to solicit information during the coming summer, and wherever 
the locusts appear, to follow them and mark their breeding-spots ; in the following 
spring have every spot well plowed ; some kind of crop can be raised that will pay 
the expense. If this plan is vigorously followed up for a few years, the devasta- 
tion and misery produced by these insects will be a history of the past. 
While plowing is one most excellent method of destroying the eggs 
in thickly-settled districts where it can be practiced, the idea of carry- 
ing out the plan suggested over the vast area of the permanent breed- 
ing grounds in the mountain district is wholly impracticable. If, as we 
have shown, it would be impracticable to attempt to burn over the 
infested areas,the idea of plowing over these areas must be considered 
as Utopian. 
The introduction of foreign locust-eating birds has been suggested as 
one means of modifying the evil. That this plan has been adopted in 
certain islands with success is probably true, and we think it would be 
well to try the experiment in this country; but a more thorough exami- 
nation of the subject and the result of the introduction of the English 
sparrow we must confess has greatly weakened our faith in the plan. 
We think it wise to protect by stringent laws our native insectivorous 
species, especially in the temporary region, as these have undoubtedly 
proved to be of great value in destroying the young locusts. But in the 
permanent region the birds have to a very large extent been left undis- 
turbed in their native wilds ; and as they have not, so far, increased to a 
degree sufficient to aid to any visible extent, there is no likelihood they 
will ever do so. 
