THE WHITE-FUNGUS DISEASE IN KANSAS. 43 
RemMeEpIsL MEASURES AND CONCLUSIONS. 
The University of Kansas, during 1910, sent qut 1,363 packages 
of diseased chinch bugs at the request of farmers, with which to 
start infection boxes and artificially infect their fields. The plan 
followed was in accordance with recommendations of Dr. Snow, 
who in the nineties attempted to check the ravages of chinch bugs by 
the distribution of Sporotrichum globuliferum, the cause of the well- 
known white-fungus disease. <A series of investigations, however, 
was inaugurated early in the year 1910, and continued until nearly 
the first of August, the purpose being to ascertain the practicability 
of artificial infection. 
The plan of work embraced the solution of the following prob- 
lems: (1) Determination of the extent of the presence of the chinch- 
bug fungus naturally in Kansas soil, (2) practicability of artificial 
infection of fields after the fungus was already shown to be present, 
(3) practicability of artificial infection of fields containing ap- 
parently little or no Sporotrichum, and incidentally (4) ascertaining 
so far as possible the best method of fighting chinch bugs in case it 
were proved that artificial infection with fungus is not effective. 
The work of solving the first problem fell naturally into two di- 
visions, namely, (1) examination of chinch bugs for the fungus 
disease, while they were still in winter quarters, and (2) examination 
of chinch bugs for disease after migration to wheat or corn fields. 
While gathering data for determining to what extent Sporotri- 
chum was naturally present in Kansas soil, many localities in the in- 
fested area were visited. The work began in January, 1910, and ex- 
tended well into the summer. As a result, 59 counties of the State 
were found by direct personal observation to contain the fungus. 
These counties are so well distributed over the infested area of Kan- 
sas as to leave but little doubt that those intervening are likewise 
supplied with fungus. 
The widespread occurrence of Sporotrichum over the State was 
recognized near the close of Dr. Snow’s investigations, in the nineties, 
since in one of his later reports (the fifth) we read the following: 
“We may conclude from the experiments that Sporotrichum was 
pretty generally prevalent throughout the State, and that probably 
in many localities there was no necessity for its artificial distribution 
in 1895.” 
The prevalence of the chinch-bug disease in Kansas soil once es- 
tablished, the next question was the practicability of sowing more 
fungus in fields known to contain it naturally.. A solution was 
sought by actual field experiments in which relatively large quanti- 
ties of fungus were used, sometimes on entire fields, other times on 
small plots where, in consequence, an intensive artificial application 
