16 INJURIOUS INSECTS OF KANSAS. 



over the field. Keep the box moist by repeated sprinkling and change 

 the green food as often as it loses its freshness. 



Careful attention to these directions will often insure success where 

 careless use of the infection would fail. Make daily notes on the ap- 

 pearance of the bugs in the infection boi and in the field, and of the 

 weather while the field infection is in progress. Note carefully the 

 Chinch-bug conditions in neighboring fields. Keep a list of farmers 

 who get infected bugs from your field. 



Save a quantity of fungus covered and non-fungus-covered dead bugs 

 in a tin box for use the following year. Put the infection box away 

 for future use. 



Should the first lot of infected bugs from the station seem to fail in 

 their purpose, send without delay for a new supply. 



Do not fail to send a full report of the experiment to the director of the 

 station. 



Kansas Notes. — The Chinch-bug was first known in the Missis- 

 sippi valley in 1823. (See S. A. Forbes, in Insect Life, Vol. i, 

 No. 8, p. 249.) 



I am unable to find matter showing the time of the first recog- 

 nition of the Chinch-bug as a pest in Kansas. In 1871 Wm. 

 Le Baron, State Entomologist of Illinois, writing to the Prairie 

 Farmer (August 5), says that hosts of Chinch-bugs "have devas- 

 tated the fields of spring wheat and barley all through the cen- 

 tral counties of Illinois, and also in parts of Iowa, Missouri, 

 Kansas, g,nd the southern border of Nebraska." 



Townend Glover, U. S. Entomologist, in the report of the U. 

 S. Commissioner of Agriculture for 1871, states that the Chinch- 

 bug has been very destructive in Iowa, Kansas, and the North- 

 western States. 



Beginning with 1873, the Prairie Farmer continuously refers, 

 by means of letters from correspondents, to the presence of the 

 Chinch-bug in greater or less numbers in Kansas. 



In the report of the U. S. Commissioner of Agriculture for 

 1874, Mr. Glover reports that 27 Kansas counties sustained losses 

 from Chinch-bugs. 



I have been able to find enough data on Chinch-bug occur- 

 rence since 1883 to say that the Chinch-bugs did not occur in 

 alarming numbers in 1884 and 1885; that they were present in 

 force in 1886, 1887, and 1888; not present in 1889 and 1890, and 

 were present in 1891 and 1892. 



