34 THE CHINCH BUG. 
ing to Le Baron, during the years from 1845 to 1850 the insect 
ravaged over Illinois and portions of Indiana and Wisconsin, and 
in 1854 and 1855 it again worked serious injury in northern Illinois. 
The writer’s earliest recollection of the chinch bug and its ravages 
in the grain fields of the settlers on the prairies dates from this 
last outbreak. Mr. B. D. Walsh estimated the loss to the farmers 
of Illinois in 1850 at $4,000,000, or $4.70 to every man, woman, and 
child living in the State. The earlier outbreaks, though the occa- 
sion of smaller money loss, were even more disastrous; for the 
destruction of the grain crops in those pioneer days not only took 
away all-cash profits, but also deprived the early settlers of their 
very living, and in some cases. reduced them to starvation. 
In 1863, 1864, and 1865 the insect was again destructive in I]linois 
and other Western States, its ravages being especially severe in 1864, 
when we have another attempt at computation of the financial loss. 
Dr. Henry Shimer, of Mount Carroll, Ul., who had carefully studied 
the chinch bug, estimated that “ three-fourths of the wheat and one- 
half of the corn crop were destroyed by the pest throughout many 
extensive districts, comprising almost the entire Northwest.” In 
criticising the doctor regarding another point, Messrs. Walsh and 
Riley, in The American Entomologist (Vol. I, p. 197, 1869), admit 
that the estimate was “a reasonable one,” and, taking it as a basis, 
with the actual cash price per bushel, computed the loss at about 
30,000,000 bushels of wheat and 128,000,000 bushels of corn, with a 
total value of both amounting to over $73,000,000. Of course all 
computations of this sort are necessarily only approximately cor- 
rect, but there is more likelihood of an under than an over estimate 
in this case. 
There was a serious outbreak of the chinch bug in the West again, 
in the year 1868, and again in 1871, but in 1874 the ravages were both 
widespread and enormous. Doctor LeBaron computed the loss in 
1871 in seven States, viz, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, 
Wisconsin, and Indiana, at $30,000,000.. Doctor Riley computed the 
loss in Missouri alone in the year 1874 at $19,000,000, and added the 
statement that for the area covered by Doctor LeBaron’s estimates in 
1871 the loss in 1874 might safely be put down as double, or upward 
of $60,000,000.2. Dr. Cyrus Thomas, however, estimates the loss to 
the whole country for the same year at upward of $100,000,000.° 
The next serious outbreak of the chinch bug of which we have the 
losses resulting therefrom computed, occurred in 1887, and covered 
more or less territory in the States of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, 
a Second Report State Entomologist of Illinois, p. 144. 
b Seventh Report State Entomologist of Missouri, pp. 24-25 
lod 
¢ Bulletin No. 5, U. S. Entomological Commission, p. 7. 
