15 



These were the famous green bugs or plant-lice, whose i-avages in this section this 

 year have cost the farmers many and many a dollar. They were all northward bound, 

 their departure from the grain fields being caused doubtless by the warm weather 

 now prevailing. 



Of the number that took wing fpr cooler regions there are probably several Ijillions 

 that will never raid another grain field. The English sparrows — the pest of the city — 

 began at daybreak a war of extermination upon the pests that ended only at twilight. 

 Twittering with delight, they sailed in flocks through the clouds of bugs, devouring 

 all they could hold. These attacks, however, caused no perceptible diminution in 

 numbers. 



An instance of the loss caused by the lice was reported here during the day. A 

 Dallas County tenant farmer had many acres in wheat and oats which these bugs com- 

 pletely destroyed. 



[Houston (Tex.) Post, April 25.] 



Cleburne, Tex., April 22. — The green bug is killing oats north of the city and has 

 devastated several fields in this neighborhood. 



[Dallas (Tex.) News, April 25.] 



McKinney, Tex., April 24- — The News correspi:>ndent traveled over the comity from 

 McKinney to the Shain ranch beyond Celina, a distance of 22 miles; thence south 

 along the Denton and Collin County line to the ranch of Parvin, 18 miles west of 

 McKinney; thence east of McKinney yesterday. The devastated wheat and oat 

 fields presented a falldike appearance, owing to the brown color so much like stubble 

 land. Thousands of acres will be idle this year for want of labor to replant. It is a 

 scene of desolation in every direction in west Collin. 



Denison, Tex., April 24- — James Jacobs, a farmer from the country a few miles west, 

 says the bugs are still active and seem to breed as long as there is anything green to 

 feed upon. He has noticed, however, that the sun kills them as quickly as their 

 wings grow. 



Sherman, Tex., April 25. — Statements from authentic sources that tlie green bugs 

 are leaving in great swarms continue to come in from all sides. 



[St. Louis (Mo.) Republic, Aj)ril 26.] 



Kaii.ms Oily, Mo., Ajiril 24- — Grain men who are going over the wheat fields of 

 Oklahoma say there is a genuine alarm entertained because of an invasion of the 

 green bugs. 



Henry Lason, of El Reno, and C. H. Stevens, of the Purcell mill, report the louse 

 as uiaking inroads in the sununer wheat to the extent of threatening to destroy a 

 vast acreage. The Government report sliows last week the louse was confined south 

 of Guthrie, but now it is reported nearing the Kansas line. The winter hard wheat 

 is n(jt attacked. Cold weather iias no effect. In places the entire sjiace in the fields 

 attacked is absolutely dead, though wheat is knee-high. 



[Fredericksbui-K (Tex.) Star, .\pril 27.] 



The wheat fields of Meridian have a new and destructive enemy. The farmers 

 are very anxious about them. They fear that the wheat crop will be utterly 

 destroyed by them. Some crops are reported as already destroyed, and the owners 

 are thinking of plowing up the fields and planting them in corn. 



The oldest inhabitants have never seen anything like them. They are about the 

 size and shape of the mites which are sometimes seen on cabbage-stalk sprouts in the 

 spring, but their color is a deep dark green, about the shade of the green blade on 

 which they feed, and sometimes 6 to 8 will be found on a blade. In a few days the 

 blade turns yellow and begins to dry up. They also abound on the winter oats. 



