INSECTS INJURIOUS TO CORN, 



307 



given, nevertheless, I am far from claiming that this disease does not do 

 a great deal of good. The facts are, that when the chinch bugs are in 

 the field in great numbers, or massed in places about the field, and warm 

 rains appear, that this fungous disease 

 spreads rapidly through the mass of chinch 

 bugs, and kills them in great numbers, re- 

 ofardless of whether the farmer has ever in- 

 troduced the spores into the field or not. 

 This whole chinch bug disease then is one 

 entirely out of and beyond the control of the 

 agriculturists. I am perfectly well aware of 

 the fact that it frequently happens that with- 

 in a few days after we have sent out this 

 chinch bug disease that the farmer will write 

 back and tell me that he scattered the disease 

 in the field, and that within two to three days 

 the chinch bugs died in vast numbers, and 

 were all but exterminated. Such letters are 

 of daily occurrence during the chinch bug 



^ too p.g gg — Chinch Bug, DUssus 



season : and any one knowinsf the nature of leucopterus, killed by the fun- 



-' ° gous disea.se, Sporotnchtum. The 



this disease, and of the chinch bugs, would myce^iium is within the bug. and 



' o * the fungous is startnig to de- 



know, at once that the chinch bug disease ^fee'lnd" uiumfteir coveiH" 

 that he received from us did not cause their ^-^^^^^ Lugger.) 

 death, because of the fact that the time that elapsed from the putting in 

 o-f the disease to the death of the chinch bugs was far short of the pos- 

 sible time for the disease to take. This again simply shows that the 

 proper climatic conditions had occurred to cause the disease already there 

 to develop naturally among those bugs, and before he had introduced it. 

 Another great error that farmers frequently make is due to the fact 

 that the chinch bug, when it comes to shed its skin and transform from 

 the last nymph condition to the adult, does so after climbing down be- 

 tween little clumps of earth and about the base of the plants, and there 

 casts its skin. It frequently happens that this is done by vast numbers 

 of chinch bugs within a day or two; and the farmer, if he has artificially 

 introduced the disease into his fields, and happens to go out to observe 

 whether the disease has caused any deaths among the bugs or not, notices 

 these cast skins, and mistakes them for killed chinch bugs. This mistake 

 is very readily made, and he immediately jumps to the conclusion that the 

 chinch bug disease which he has recently introduced has killed vast num- 

 bers of his chinch bugs. But there is no need of saying anything further 

 in regard to this chinch bug disease. I think that I have said enough 



