CHINCH BUG SUNDRY STATEMENTS. 



285 



proceed, until a frosty night occurs, when their operations 

 instantly cease. 



Dr. ^arshall of Keithsburg, informs me that in destroyed 

 patches individual stalks sometimes occur, which have been 

 missed by them. These remain green and thrifty, and their 

 heads become well filled, when all around is bleached and with- 

 ered. It is commonly a strip, two, three or even five or ten 

 rods in width upon one of the sides of a field, which is whitened 

 and destroyed by them ; but in some instances they enter a field 

 in a narrow strip, and then spread out into a large patch. 



D. Williams of Geneva, Wisconsin, says the chinch bug made 

 its advent there in 1854, coming apparently from the south, 

 its nearest approach the year before being thirty miles south. 

 In a letter written July 9th, 1855, he says it had that year caused 

 considerable damage, especially in spring wheat, but a heavy 

 rain two weeks before had checked its ravages. 



The first appearance of the chinch bug at a particular locality 

 and its progress from year to year, is related with more exact- 

 ness than I have elsewhere seen, in a communication to the 

 Country Gentleman (vol. v, p. 396) from E. C. Smith of Christy's 

 Prairie, la., from which the following extracts, containing further 

 information upon the economy and destructiveness of this insect 

 are taken. It is dated May 20th, 1855, before the extent of the 

 depredations of the bug that year could be fully known, and 

 was accompanied with specimens and a request for information 

 as to tl^ correct name of the insect, it being termed the "corn fly" 

 in that neighborhood. Mr. Smith says : — 



" The first time they were ever observed in this vicinity, so far 

 as I have been able to ascertain, was nine years ago last summer. 

 They were seen in a cornfield, about three miles from this place. 

 They appeared to come from the stubble of a wheat field that 

 bordered on the corn. They did but little damage. A few suc- 

 cessive days of rainy weather put a stop to their progress, and 

 nothing more was seen of them, that season. Two years later, 

 they appeared on the farm of one of my neighbors, about half a 

 mile distant. They came apparently, as before, from wheat 

 stubble, though none had been observed in the wheat while 

 growing; and they began on that part of the corn adjacent to it. 



