1881 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
283 
market at two years. As a general rule, a 
250-lb. pig is much better in quality and more 
profitable than a hog that weighs 500 lbs. 
The point of appreciation of quickly matur¬ 
ing animals is being reached, though some¬ 
what gradually, and it remains to improve 
the various breeds, especial regard being taken 
to carefully select those animals to breed 
from that come to maturity at an early age. 
A Hand Protector. 
Mr. Samuel R. Ludlow, Fannin Co., Texas, 
writes One ‘ trick,’ as they say here, has 
done me good service, and I am glad to 
mention it for the benefit of others, namely : 
—a leather protection for the hands, which 
is very useful, while handling timber, brush, 
and briers. This protector is made by cut¬ 
ting a section of an old boot leg, so as to pass 
around the hand. Cut a hole for the thumb 
at one side, near the edge, and lace up the 
band of leather on the opposite side with a 
leather thread cut from some other part of 
the boot. This is a good e glove’ to wear, 
and enables one to pull down vines regard¬ 
less of thorns, and where they are as abun¬ 
dant, aggressive, and persistent as ours, quite 
an item in time is saved by using this protec¬ 
tor.”—The engraving herewith given is made 
from a neat sketch of the hand protector 
which accompanied Mr. L.’s letter. 
A Movable Side to a Work Bench. 
A “ Eest ” that can be raised or lowered, is 
very convenient for holding long, wide boards 
while planing their edges. Mr. Josiah Crow¬ 
foot, Washington Co., Wis., sends a sketch of 
a movable side to a work bench, from which 
MOVABLE SIDE TO A WORK BENCH. 
the engraving herewith presented, is made. 
The movable board is shown at a, and is so 
adjusted as to be always level, or parallel 
with the top of the bench. There are two 
slanting holes, b, b, -with steps, about 1 $• inch 
rise, and at an angle of 45 degrees, so that 
when a narrow board is raised up against the 
straight sides of the slots, it is elevated 
equally at both ends. When it is desired to 
lower the “ side,” all that is necessary is to 
push it against the straight side of the slot 
and let it drop as far as needed. The board, 
a, can be 4 to 6 inches wide, having 1-inch 
pins through it, to rest in the slots, with a 
little piece of board on the inside of each to 
keep the pins in place. The construction of 
the movable slide or “ rest ” of the work bench 
is made clear by the accompanying engraving. 
The Army Worm. 
The alleged appearance of the Army Worm 
in the States of New York and New Jersey, 
has caused alarm among farmers in the 
localities where it is said to have appeared. 
It is so much earlier (the middle of May) 
than it is usual for the insect to take up its 
march of devastation, that it is most likely 
that some other caterpillar has been mistaken 
for it. The newspaper accounts that 
have thus far appeared are, of course, 
very indefinite, but so far as can be in¬ 
ferred from the description of their 
ravages, and the fact that they have thus 
far injured only garden crops, we doubt 
if the Army Worm has been seen at all. 
From the meagre accounts given, they 
are no doubt one of the several Cut¬ 
worms, which are never excessively 
numerous, and may be easily captured. 
As to the true Army Worm, we gave a 
year ago—July 1880—a history of the in¬ 
sect, and engravings, that will allow it 
to be readily recognized, and those in¬ 
terested are referred to that number. 
When the “Army” was close at hand last 
year, on Long Island, various methods 
of arresting it in its march and di¬ 
minishing the numbers were suggested by 
us, and these and others were tried upon a 
large scale. But two modes of warfare 
seemed to be of value ; one of these was to 
make a trench across the line of their march 
and place in this freshly cut grass, Red-top 
being their favorite food. The grass was 
sprinkled with water in which Paris Green 
or London Purple was stirred, precisely as if 
it were to be applied for Potato-beetles. Large 
numbers were thus poisoned. The second 
method, and the one preferred to all others, 
was to prepare the trench and to dig pits or 
holes every rod or so in the bottom of it. 
These pits, about a foot square and two feet 
deep, must have straight, smooth sides. 
The trench is made by running the plow two 
or three times in the furrow, and with its 
straight side next the field to be protected; it 
is finished by the use of spades, making the 
side towards the field as straight and as 
smooth as possible. The worms being checked 
by the wall of the ditch, wander to find a 
place of escape, and fall into the pits. When 
one set "bf pits is nearly filled with worms, 
others are dug, using a part of the earth to 
fill up the first made pits and bury their con¬ 
tents. It is necessary to keep watch of the 
trench, lest some break may allow the army Flg ' 2- 
to pass over it. The worms rest during the 
night, but as soon as they feel the warmth 
of the morning they start on their march. 
The Rocky Mountain Locust, alias Western 
Grasshopper. 
BY PROP. C. Y. RILEY. 
The Western readers of the American Agricul¬ 
turist are intensely interested in everything pertain¬ 
ing to the destructive insect, known as the Rocky 
Mountain Locust, and at the request of the Editors 
I give herewith a summary of facts concerning it. 
Egg-laying and Hatching. —Figure 1 illustrates 
the manner in which the female lays her eggs. 
With two pair of horny valves at the tip of the ab¬ 
domen she is able to drill a cylindrical hole in the 
ground, preferring for this purpose soil that is 
rather firm, though not too hard. In a moist 
climate, or where vegetation is rank, she chooses 
bare and exposed places, but in her native range, 
Fig. 1.— a, a, a, female locust in different positions, ovipositing; 
b, egg-pod extracted from ground, with the end broken open; c, 
eggs; 5, e, eartli partially removed, to show an egg-mass already in 
place, and one being placed ; f, shows where such a mass has been 
covered up. 
viz., the Northwestern Plains, where the vegeta¬ 
tion is usually scant and short, she chooses rather 
the shade at the base of some Sage bush or Grease- 
wood shrub. When the hole is once drilled the 
eggs are laid in four tolerably regular rows (flg. 2), 
interspersed by a fluid which is frothy and mucous, 
and which dries around the eggs and fills up the 
neck of the burrow (fig. 2, d). Each female lays 
from two to three batches of eggs, each batch con¬ 
taining about 30 eggs. The eggs are laid through¬ 
out the late summer and fall months until winter 
sets in, at which time every stage of embryonic 
development can he found. The great bulk of the 
eggs remain unhatched until the ensuing spring. 
Habits and Development. —The young locusts 
congregate in large numbers in warm and sunny 
places. At night, or during cold and damp weather, 
they usually huddle together under any shelter or 
rubbish that may be at hand. They do not migrate 
until they have eaten off the vegetation where they 
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'Fop-dressing 1 Meadows.—As soon as 
the first cut of grass is made, an application 
of well-rotted, finely divided manure may be 
made with very profitable returns. The ma¬ 
nure protects the exposed surfaces of the base 
of the grass plants from the heat of the sun, 
and furnishes the necessary nourishment to 
the roots of the plants. A new growth is 
soon produced, making the land profitable 
either as a pasture or for a second mowing. 
-Egg-mass.— a, from the side, within burrow; b, from 
beneath ; c, from above—enlarged. 
hatch. This usually happens when they are about 
one-third or one-half grown. They then travel 
during the warmer hours of the day by alternately 
walking and hopping in vast bodies in some given 
direction. In thus travelling they move at the 
average rate of about three yards a minute. There 
is a widespread popular belief that they are led in 
these movements by so-called kings or queens, but 
this is an error, and the belief is due to the fact 
that other large, full-fledged locusts belonging to 
other genera, which hibernate in the winged state, 
are frequently seen with these marching bevies. 
There are six stages of growth, i. e., the locust 
moults at five different periods. The change at 
each of these moults is but slight, and the wing- 
pads are. first distinctly noticeable and turned hp 
