REMEDIES. 
189 
enveloped by the insects. Rewards are offered and paid for 
their collection, half a franc being given for a kilogramme 
(about 2 lb. 3£ oz. avoirdupois) of the insects, and a quarter 
of a franc for the same weight of their eggs. At this rate 
twenty thousand francs were paid in Marseilles, and twenty- 
five thousand in Arles, in the year 1613 ; in 1824, five thou- 
sand five hundred and forty-two, and in 1825, six thousand 
two hundred francs were paid in Marseilles. It is stated that 
an active boy can collect from six to seven kilogrammes (or 
from 131b. 3oz. 13.22 dr. to 151b. 7 oz. 2.09 dr.) of eggs 
in one day. The locusts are taken by means of a piece of 
stout cloth, carried by four persons, two of whom draw it 
rapidly along, so that the edge may sweep over the surface of 
the soil, and the two others hold up the cloth behind at an 
angle of forty-five degrees.* This contrivance seems to oper- 
ate somewhat like a horse-rake, in gathering the insects into 
winrows or heaps, from which they are speedily transferred 
to large sacks. 
A somewhat similar plan has been successfully tried in 
this country, as appears by an account extracted from the 
“ Portsmouth Journal,” and published in the “ New Eng- 
land Farmer.” f It is there stated that, in July, 1826, Mr. 
Arnold Thompson, of Epsom, New Hampshire, caught, in 
one evening, between the hours of eight and twelve, ih his 
own and his neighbor’s grain-fields, five bushels and three 
pecks of grasshoppers, or more properly locusts. “ His mode 
of catching them was by attaching two sheets together, and 
fastening them to a pole, which was used as the front part of 
the drag. The pole extended beyond the width of the sheets, 
so as to admit persons at both sides to draw it forward. At 
the sides of the drag, braces extended from the pole to raise 
the back part considerably from the ground, so that the 
grasshoppers could not escape. After running the drag about 
a dozen rods with rapidity, the braces were taken out, and 
* See Annales de la Socidtd Entomologiquo de France, Vol. II. pp. 48G-489. 
t Vol. V. p. 5. 
