The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-09-01
DEPENDENCE MUST BE PLACED
UPON SEVERE WINTER.
NATURE ALONE CAN HELP
Cooley, State EntomoIoaist,
Writes to President Power Of
Sheep Commissioners.

Whatever success may have at
tended the Introduction of his culture
for the destruction Of grasshoppers
wherever tried, Professor Cooley, the
state entomologist, holds out but lit
tie hope to the grazer and rancher for
permanent relief, except from nature.
This he states in a letter to T. G.
Power, president of the state board of
sheep commissioners.
Recently Mr.. Power wrote to the
professor expressing the boards ap-
probation of his efforts to afford re-
lief and offering all the assistance in
it's power in furtherance of his OBJ
ject. Intimation was given that il
money were needed to carry on the
work the board was prepared to ex-
tend it's assistance in that direction.
Reply was made to the letter, but
the encouragement held out was OF
the negative kind. In the opinion OF
Professor Cooley it is to late for. the
entertainment of hope to rid the range
and farm of the affected regions of the
pests this year. Only a cold winter,
such rs Montana used to have, he be-
lieves, will do the business and pre-
vent a recurrence of the scourge next
year.
Professor cooIey's Letter.
Under date of August %, Professor
Cooley writes as follows:
l am very grateful to you for your
kind offer of assistance in fighting the
grasshoppers in Montana. Your letter
reached me Wednesday noon, but it
has not been convenient to secure a
stenographer until this morning.
The conditions on the range r
such that there lis no hope of doing
any good this fall. The grasshoppers
are now depositing their eggs, and
none of the mean of defense against
grasshopper invasion that have been
used in years past in other states will
be of any service under Montana's
conditions. The remedies that have
been used in other places have been
devised for the conditions such as oc-
cur in the more thickly settled eastern
states, where the farmers own or con-
troll smaller tracts of land and are so
close together that by united efforts
they can control the grasshoppers. In
Montana, however, where one man is
in control of a large tract of range, and
where the profit per acre for grazing is
SO small, none of the remedies are
practical. The remedies that have
been employed are the following:
Some Remedies.
(A) Flowing in the fall. This is
done to expose the eggs to the rigors
of the winter weather and is the most
effective remedy known for %grasshop-
pers. While this remedy a be en-
ployed in a few in agricultural
fields in the valleys, it is quite out OF
the question on the range.
OBJ Hopper-dozers. Hopper-dozezrs
are metallic pans sometimes IA to 70
feet in length, composed of sections
and partly filled with kerosene. These
are drawn about the fields by horses.
The young hoppers, when disturbed,
lump into the pans in large numbers
| and are killed. A boy with n horse
dragging one of these pans for a day,
sometimes kills many bushels OF
young grasshoppers. This, again, is
not a parctical remedy in Montana, ex-
cent under some conditions in the ag-
! ricultural valleys. This remedy is OF
service only early in the season be-
, fore the grasshoppers acquire their
wings.
(C) Digging of trenches. Under
some conditions trenches may be dug
around fields to be protected. These
trenches may be made with a ploW,
leaving the vertical side of the trench
against the field to be protected. AT
intervals dep pits ire dug in the Dot
tom of the trench, SO that the young
hoppers get into the trench and mop
along to find a place to get out. even
tually dropping into the pits. When
one set of pits becomes filled they may
! he covered with earth and other pits
dug in the same trench.
CD Distributing poisoned balts IN
the fields. This remedy mas often Deen
employed where the infested area mas
not been so large as to make the rem
adv impracticable. Some luxurlant
vegetation such as alfalfa is dipped IN