REMEDIAL AND PREVENTIVE MEASURES. 69 
be found equally practicable here, as also will the post holes for col- 
lecting the chinch bugs. This method is merely cited in order to call 
attention to its possible use where the others are found impracticable. 
The plowing of furrows has been in vogue since the first writings of 
Le Baron and the second report of Doctor Fitch, and may be utilized 
in other ways than those previously mentioned. A heavy log 
dragged back and forth in this furrow will pulverize the soil in dry 
weather, and Forbes has recorded the fact that where this has a 
temperature of 110° to 116° F. it is fatal to the young bugs that fall 
into the furrow, even if they are not killed by the log. As 120° is 
not uncommon in an exposed furrow on a hot summer day, it will be 
observed that there may be cases where this method will be found 
very serviceable, and especially is this likely to prove true in a sandy 
soil with a southern exposure. In sections of the country where 
irrigation is practiced these furrows may be flooded and in this way 
rendered still more effective without the expenditure of either time 
or money to keep them in constant repair. Doctor Riley long ago 
laid considerable stress on this measure, believing it of much value, 
especially in the arid regions of the far West. The same writer ad- 
vised the flooding of infested fields, wherever it could be done, for ¢ 
day or so occasionally during the month of May. It is hardly prob- 
able, however, that this will often be found feasible except in rice 
fields, where it 1s sometimes practiced. 
NECESSITY FOR PREVENTING CHINCH BUGS FROM BECOMING ESTABLISHED 
IN FIELDS OF WHEAT AND GRASS. 
In the foregoing it will be observed that prevention of migration 
has been the chief end in view either by destroying the chinch bugs 
in their hibernating quarters, and thus preventing the spring migra- 
tion to the breeding places, or by various traps and obstructions to 
prevent them from migrating from such places to others not already 
infested. The great problem remaining to be solved is to prevent their 
breeding in wheat fields at all. As has been shown, it is absolutely 
impossible, with our present inability to forecast the weather months 
in advance, to be able to foretell whether or not an outbreak of chinch 
bugs is likely to take place. There may be an abundance of bugs in 
the fall—enough to cause an outbreak over a wide section of coun- 
try—and these may winter over in sufficient numbers to cause some 
injury in spring, yet a few timely, drenching rains will outbalance all 
of these factors, and our wisest prognostications fail of proving true. 
It is this very factor of uncertainty that renders unlikely the success- 
ful carrying out, over any large area of country, of any protective 
measures where, as in this case, the benefit to be derived will only be 
realized nearly a year afterwards, if at all. The average farmer, 
