REMEDIAL AND PREVENTIVE MEASURES. 63 
Infested areas of meadow land could be plowed, it is true; but the 
work would have to be done very carefully, else the grass and stubble 
would be left to protrude above ground along each furrow and consti- 
tute so many ladders by which the chinch bugs could easily crawl out 
and make their escape. Where the ground will admit of subsoiling, or 
where a “ jointer ” plow can be used, this latter difficulty can be easily 
overcome. Usually, however, the chinch bug works too irregularly in 
a field to permit of plowing under infested areas without disfiguring 
it too much for practical purposes, especially in the case of meadows, 
unless it be where the bugs have migrated en masse from an adjoining 
field, when a narrow strip along the border can often be sacrificed to 
good advantage. In many instances the heroic use of the plow in 
turning under a few outer rows of corn would have saved as many 
acres from destruction. In the majority of cases it is the fault of the 
farmer himself that these measures are not effective, as he will sel- 
dom take the trouble to burn the dead leaves, grass, and trash about 
his premises at the proper time, and when there occurs an invasion 
of chinch bugs, instead of resorting to heroic and energetic measures 
to conquer them on-a small area he usually hesitates and delays in 
order to determine whether or not the attack is to be a serious one, 
and by the time he has decided which it is to be, the matter has gone 
too far, and the chinch bugs have taken possession of his field. This 
is especially true in the West, where the bugs breed exclusively in the 
fields of wheat and remain unobserved until harvest, when they sud- 
denly and without warning precipitate themselves upon the growing 
corn in adjacent fields. In fighting the chinch bug promptness of 
action is about as necessary as it is in fighting fire. 
WATCHFULNESS NECESSARY DURING PROTRACTED PERIODS OF DROUGHT. 
It has always appeared to the writer as though a little watchful- 
ness on the part of farmers during periods of drought might enable 
them to determine whether or not chinch bugs were present in any 
considerable numbers in their fields, in time to interpose a strip of 
millet between the wheat and corn, to be utilized later as previously 
indicated. Instances have come under observation where, the wheat 
fields being overgrown with panic grass and meadow foxtail, the bugs 
transferred their attention to these as soon as the wheat was harvested, 
and a prompt plowing of the ground would have placed the depre- 
dators beyond the possibility of doing any serious injury. If the 
weather at the time is hot and dry, a mower may be run over the 
stubble fields or along the borders of them, cutting off grass, weeds, 
and stubble, as the case may be, leaving them to dry in the hot sun, 
when, in a few hours, they will burn sufficiently to roast all bugs 
