l62 



SECOND REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



5. Where the meadows will not permit of plowing as above, gas-lime, 

 wherever it can be conveniently obtained from the gas-works at Ogdens- 

 burg, Watertown, etc., may be distributed over the ground, at the rate 

 of two hundred bushels to the acre. The gas-lime would also serve as 

 a valuable fertilizer. 



Of the above directions, the first four should be followed at once. 

 The application of gas-lime might be postponed until the month of 

 November, before the setting in of winter, or to the early spring. It 

 should be confined to the dead and infested portions of the meadows, 

 as in its fresh state it would kill the grass. In the winter, during 

 February, it may safely be distributed over the entire fields, where it 

 would probably serve the additional purpose of a preventive of a spring 

 attack. 



New attacks and more widespread distribution may be looked for 

 about the first of June in the ensuing year. Directions for meeting 

 these, by other methods, will be given hereafter. 



It is hoped that every one interested will cheerfully comply with the 

 above directions, and not render necessary a resort to compulsory legis- 

 lation, which would undoubtedly call for a large increase of labor and 

 expenditure. The agricultural interests of th^ State of New York may 

 justly demand that, if possible to prevent it, the chinch-bug shall not 

 be allowed to gain a permanent footing as a grain and grass destroyer 

 within its borders. Its injuries in the State of Illinois, in a single year, 

 were estimated at ^73,000,000 — almost five times the amount computed 

 for the wheat-midge ravages in New York, at the time of its greatest 

 destructiveness. 



Office of the State Entomologist, October 18, 1883. 



To the above circular the following figure (after Fitch), and descrip- 

 tion was appended, to aid in the recognition of the insect. 



The Chinch-Bdg in natural size and as enlarged (about ten diameters). Color: bltick, 

 with white wing-covers, having a black subtriangular spot on the outer margin of each, 

 and two black veins nearer the base. The legs, the sucking-tube, and the base of the 

 antennoe, are deep honey-yellow; the feet and the last joints of the antennte are black. 

 Length, about three-twentieths of an inch. 



Theyouns, appearing early in June and late in August, are blood-red, with a white band 

 across their middle : later they change to brown and afterward to black. 



