707 Thorpe Bldg
Friday Night

My Dear Ina & Boys,

I am enclosing two salary checks also a check from Miss Anderson for $20 on a loan. Please deposit them. They are endorsed for deposit and the book is enclosed. I wish you would keep the pass book with you.

March 18, 1938

We bought 1650 tons of milled bran yesterday and we expect to get some shipments moving next week when the traffic man and the rate man join our office.

I am expecting Mr. Gaddis tomorrow morning and he will be with me for a few days at least. He and Roberts met some state men at Billings yesterday. Our men are beginning to report for duty. Mr. Miller started at College Sta. yesterday when the conference was held there.

Stillwater conference tomorrow and Brookings 3/21. Things are starting OK considering the new office and everything.

With love
Walter

This grasshopper control campaign grew out of the prairie states’ apocalyptic experiences with Rocky Mountain locusts (Melanoplus spretus) in the late 19th century. After M. spretus’s mysterious dissappearance, other species of grasshoppers partially filled its niche, forming large swarms across the region periodically. Walter’s new job is to prevent the next one of these swarms. To do that, the USDA is mixing bran with one of the few insecticides available at the time, probably an arsenic compound. They’ll spread this poisoned bait on the soil to kill the emerging grasshopper nymphs before the growing season. The 1,650 tons of bran Walter mentions here hints at the scale of this operation.