(Commenicated.)
Major Yao has received from Brigadier Fan a proclamation issued by the Viceroy Shen to the effect that last year flying locusts covered the countryside, leaving behind innumerable grubs $j -F- which soldiery and local officials were then instructed to search for and dig up. From that time up to the present over two million catties have been brought in, thus proving there has been no lack of energy in obeying the orders given, nor any deficiency in the nwnbers given up. Reports are now crowding in that locust grubs are springing up ants and flies all over the countryside, that they are big enough to hop about and will in the twinkling of an eye have wings and commit unutterable harm. Mr. Brigadier Woo has now discovered in course of his literary researches, that locusts have an instinctive dread of oil He has therefore instructed his braves to mix a picul of oil with water and scatter it over locust-infested fields, whereby. the insects would be killed. In fields where the rice is just sprouting, the all on the water will prevent the descent of the locusts. Oil from the Elesococca tree {it}, however, is injurious to the crops, and should not be used, but every other ind of oil is equally destructive to locusts, hemp oil being the best. 'The Viceroy has noticed, too, in a certain work, that locusts read oil and that it is the' best preservative for the crops. Facts like these about oil cannot be too widely known, in order that men by their personal efforts may second the desire of Heaven for harmony (aide toi et Dien t'aidera.) Soldiers and people in accordance with the above statements are therefore requested to use extensively either hemp, bean, cotton, or vegetable oil, to mix it with water and scatter it over the fields, and thus extirpate a noxious pest and preserve their fields.
IV., 18th of 6 moon,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.