Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 81.djvu/475

Rh doubts as to the recurrence of the trouble. And then, too, we have the more or less shiftless renter who says, "No, I do not think I will do anything—hardly worth while—I move next year." We find, too, a certain class, foreigners mostly (a large portion of Minnesota farmers are Scandinavians), who feel that the state should send men to their fields at its own expense, protect their crops by the state's efforts, and, incredible as it may seem, in some instances, pay them (the farmers) 8 generous board bill at the same time. Then, too, many of the real estate men in a locality more or less afflicted, look with disfavor upon efforts naturally attended with some publicity, to instruct the farmers in methods of control, claiming it injures business.

The misconceptions regarding grasshoppers and locusts which prevail, and the consequent errors which creep into print, are amazing, the most common one possibly being confounding of one of the harvest flies, or so-called seventeen-year locust, with the true locust or grasshoppers. The seventeen-year locust or periodical cicada, which, by the way, is as yet lacking, or extremely rare in Minnesota, is a sucking insect and belongs to an entirely different order than that of locusts or grasshoppers. One can imagine, then, the feelings of an entomologist upon beholding the following newspaper comment, placed upon the front page with startling head-lines: "Within the past week several farmers have seen the genuine red-legged, seventeen-year, or Rocky Mountain locust flying high in the air." We have used the term "grasshopper" repeatedly in this article, because it is a popular