Plagues of Locusts in South Africa

Abstract

FOR the past three years an organised effort has been made by the Governments of the South African colonies to destroy the swarms of locusts that from time to time invade the cultivated districts and ravage the crops. The third annual report of the Central Locust Bureau has lately been issued under the editorship of Mr. C. P. Lounsbury, the entomologist for the Cape.¹ Together with the two previous reports it furnishes a very instructive demonstration of what can be done by enlightened executives working harmoniously on scientific principles. The Central Bureau comprises representatives of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal, Orange River Colony, Southern Rhodesia, Bechuanaland, Basutoland, Swaziland, Mozambique, and German South-west Africa, its influence thus overstepping political boundaries. It acts by collecting and spreading information about locusts and their migrations throughout the district of its operations, the actual work of repression or extermination being undertaken by the local governments separately.