How to track the wily locust to his lair

Title

Language

English

Source

The American Chamber of Commerce Journal Volume 6 (Issue No.6) June 1926

Year

1926

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

JUNE, 1926 How to Track the Wily Locust to His Lair 3?3?3?3?3?3?3P3?3tr3?3it3?3f 3? 3? & 3P 3? Can’t Be Done in Swivel Chairs With Red Tape From time to time we are regaled with notices in the public press to the effect that the bureau of agriculture or the executive bureau, or both, are going i.o wage a “relentless, unmerciful” exter mination of locusts throughout the is land s. Sometimes they talk about for estalling an infestation after there are dozens of municipalities in many provinces already infested. The present incumbents of the aforemen tioned bureaus are in no way to blame for this opera muffet conduct. They have sim ply inherited the old stereotypes that were prepared by ‘their many predecessors and have now become heirlooms. These stereo types are handed out by some white-eolla’’ clerk to cub reporters, none of whom the first thing about locusts. These notices may be great consolation to the city dweller and .make line reading for the folks at home but to the people most interested they are pure bunk. $ An old saying is, “The only good indian is a dead indian.” This applies with more justification to locusts. Tlie time to kill locusts is before they have reached the fly ing stage and to accomplish this means a centralized supervision having the power and inclination to take drastic action against the municipal officials who allow hoppers to become fliers. It is true that the primary breeding places are located in the grassy hills generally quite a distance from populated districts. The next breeding places are generally very close to ultivated areas. This is due to the fact that the first fliers have descended from their mountain birthplace and sought food in the planted areas or grassy areas in the lower levels. The planters may be fortunate enough to keep the fliers on the move but as a rule they are content to stop work when the fliers are only a comparatively short dis tance from their fields. Here the fliers will deposit their eggs and when these eggs ha\e hatched the real trouble starts. Your office theorist then trots out his heavy artillery and maps out a campaign. He is just sixty deys late. Unfortunately our responsible officials ne ver concern themselves about preventiv* measures. They wait until the locusts are crossing their lawn before they take action. As a instance of the foregoing I would state that several years ago the office of the governor general was notified that unless action was taken immediately there would be an infestation of the provinces surround ing Manila. A few days after this informa tion was given to the governor’s aide, he was asked if the matter had been brought to at tention of the governer general and his reply was that he had not brought the information to the governor general’s attention because the governor was too busy on other matters of more importance. A few weeks later fliers swarmed over Manila. Then what happened? Everyone woke up with a start. Something must be done. Entomologists would brought from the four corners of the globe to discover a parasite. What was done? As soon as there were no more locusts on the city side walks, the whole thing was forgotten. A parasite was discovered and was reported by telegranh to Malacanan. Three weeks later a reply was received asking if the parasite was still in evidence. Weather conIditions had changed and the parasite could not get in its work except when too late. It would seem that there is too much of this business of not bothering the governor general with trivial matters like locusts that annually actually destroy crops worth millions of pesos, to say nothing of the value of the labor expended in fighting them; but a poor lone Moro jura mentudo will have all the military hardware of Ma lacanan rattling for months. The responsibility for locust infestation rests with the officials of each municipality. Hold local officials from the provincial governor down the scale to the teniente del barrio responsibe for locating and report ing locust breeding areas within his juris diction. Let the governor general stop listening to a lot of buck-passing when he calls for explanations as to why the hop pers were allowed to become fliers, and do a little out-of-hand firing, and we would soon see the swarms of fibers decrease. Ask any official why he did not discover the hoppers and he will immediately excuse himself by saying that the locusts came from the adjoining province or munici pality. If provincial and municipal officials once understand that an infestation of locusts in their territory imperils their tenure of office, we shall soon see something real accom plished. Let each municipality maintain patrols to visit the isolated areas where locusts are known to breed. When reports of breeding places are received then forces should be organized to exterminate the hoppers and in this way accomplish something. One hopper killed means the escape from the ravages of tens of thousands of descendents later in the season. Government red tape hampers practical work. The governor general has it in his power to accomplish results if he is willing to take some radical action as he would in other emergencies. Let him act first and explain afterward. —John R. Wilson, Secretary. 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