254 REPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
themes of thought and speech in Sierra Valley. Though former articles on the sub- 
ject are somewhat lengthy, yet the half was not told. 
I have just completed the entire circuit of the valley, getting statements from nearly 
all the farmers on the north aud west sides, portions of the valley quite as severely 
devastated as those reported previously, but for want of time to visit them then the 
damages generally were estimated. 
Those estimates fall far short of the truth, as details clearly show. It will suffice 
now to give the aggregates of damages and the area of the several districts : Adam's 
Neck aud vicinity, 818,000, from 22 large farms containing 14,000 acres; Beckwourih 
and vicinity, §15,000, 13 small farms of 9,000 acres; west side, $6,300, 15 small farms 
of 5,000 acres; interior (estimated), $6,000, 12 small farms of 4,000 acres. Totals, 
$45,800 — 67 farms of 35,000 acres. Add Loyaltou and vicinity and Sierraville, as 
formerly reported, s:{0,i)iji), 21 farms, 15,000 acres— grand totals, §75,300; 1)1 farms of 
47,000 acres, being $30,000 damages more than estimated. 
The statements from sufferers elicited on this circuit in regard to t be appearance 
and habits of the locust, conform generally to those of others given in the first arti- 
cle, though some observers detected two or more kinds of grasshoppers, and it is quite 
likely that the culprits comprise more than the one species I have determined as the 
CEdipoda atrox. But all statements and all the specimens seen declare against the pos- 
sibility that either of the three true migratory species are in our midst. 
The satisfaction derived from this conclusion is that we of California are beyond 
the range of the all-devouring migratores that so often lay waste the interior. There 
they are liable to fall upon the farmer's field during any year of drought. Most of 
the border States have enacted expensive legislation to reduce the pest, by giving 
bounties of $1 to $5 per bushel for the locusts and $50 per gallon for eggs collected 
and destroyed, and also made it obligatory upon the able-bodied citizens to work a 
certain number of days to destroy them. Coal oil, Paris green, caustic potash, aud 
several other chemical poisons are employed, and twenty-two kinds of machines, more 
or less elaborate and costly, are described and illustrated in the last report of the 
United States Entomological Commission, as being in ]£se in the infested region. Ex- 
tensive systems of irrigation are instituted, co-operative action arranged for burning 
the dry grass of the prairies at the right time to kill the unfledged locusts, &c. Fu- 
migation, by burning dampened straw along the borders of growing crops, is found to 
ward off invading swarms. The aid of the military and Indian agents is invoked to 
assist in digging extensive trenches for trapping the young, and a signal corps of ob- 
servation is suggested and shown to be of more prospective service than the present 
one devoted to " weather probabilities," involving, as the locust problem does, an an- 
nual average loss of about $40,000,000. 
Professor Riley writes me : " Undoubtedly the same remedies that I have recom- 
mended [alluding to this report of the Locust Commission] will apply to your species." 
The inutility of most of these remedies lies in the fact that a portion of the eggs are 
deposited in patches out in the sage-covered interior of the valley, where they cannot 
be treated with machines or with plow and harrow, fire or water, all too late for this 
year. But many observers speak of the young as moving in narrow columns, mowing 
swaths of grass in their progress. In this stage they might be precipitated into 
trenches, or trampled or crushed by rolling. These methods would be feasible only 
where the young locusts are not very numerous. Large masses thus ditched, if left 
uncovered, would bring in a worse pestilence — horrid diseases. 
The insects huddle under dry grass and weeds during cool nights, where they may 
often be destroyed by fire. 
A thin film of coal-oil, which will readily spread, upon a ditch of still water, will 
kill the locusts instantly if they try to swim across. 
A shallow pan having a small quantity of coal-oil in it, if placed where the insects 
may fall into it, is very effective. The oil in these cases penetrates the breathing ap- 
