THE CHINCH-BUG: ITS OPERATIONS IN NEW YORK. 157 



Dr. Le Baron, from data collected with great care, has estimated the 

 value of the wheat, oats, barley and corn destroyed in the State of 

 Illinois in 187 1, at ten and a half millions of dollars; and for the six 

 additional Western States of Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska 

 and Wisconsin, approximately, double that of Illinois, making an aggre- 

 gate in the North-western States of over ^31,000,000 {Second Reyort 

 on the Insects of Illinois, 1872, p. 144). 



Prof. Riley, from county returns received from eighty-six counties in 

 the State ot Missouri, and from estimates of the remaining twenty- 

 eight counties, has calculated the loss to the three staple crops of wheat, 

 corn and oats alone, in 1874, in that State, at $19,000,000. He also 

 states that during this year the losses from the same insect in Illinois 

 may be safely put down at double that they were in 187 1, or over 

 |6o,ooo,ooo {Seventh Report on the Insects of Missouri, 1875, pp. 24, 25). 



The years 1864, 187 1 and 1874, from the warm and dry seasons that 

 they offered, were unusually favorable to the multiplication of the 

 insect, and were therefore years of its unusual abundance. Still it is 

 not of rare occurrence that a single one of the wheat-growing Western 

 States should suffer a loss of $10,000,000 in a single year. It 

 seems almost incredible that the destructive powers of a small suctorial 

 insect could be so great, but its enormous numbers must furnish the ex- 

 planation. In times of its abundance it is so numerous as to cover the 

 ground ; it blackens the stalks of the plants upon which it feeds ; it fills 

 the air when at seasons of its mating, it takes wing for flight ; it marches 

 to new feeding-grounds in solid bodies, upon and over one another; its 

 invading armies sweep over and utterly destroy a wheat or corn-field in 

 two or three days ; and the nauseous bed-bug odor which they exhale 

 sickens those who are compelled to breathe it. 



Only a little of our knowledge of this insect has been given in the 

 preceding pages, but that space may be left for some notice of its recent 

 operations in the State of New York, those who would know more of 

 its interesting history, its habits, the natural enemies that prey upon it, 

 and the various means used for destroying it, are referred to the excellent 

 and extended papers upon it by Harris, Fitch, Thomas, Riley, Forbes 

 and others which we have cited. 



Operations in New York. 



Its presence in New York in the years 1882 and 1883, while not at- 

 tended with serious losses, was justly the occasion of great anxiety and 

 fears. The attack, under its existing conditions, was of so threatening a 

 character that I deemed it my duty to recommend most earnest efforts 

 for its suppression. Just how far the efforts made in compliance with 

 the recommendations aided in its arrest can onlv be surmised. 



