18 FARMERS’ BULLETIN 657. 
without disfiguring the field too much for practical purposes, espe- 
cially 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 drastic measure of turning under a few outer rows of 
corn with the plow 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 seldom 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, rye, and barley, 
often remaining unobserved until harvest, when they suddenly 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. 
ELIMINATING CHINCH BUGS FROM TIMOTHY MEADOWS BY CROP ROTATION. 
In several instances where chinch bugs have become especially 
destructive to timothy meadows over considerable areas of country, 
it has been found that these outbreaks were attributable to the fact 
that these sections of country were largely given over to dairying. 
The dairymen and stockmen found it more desirable to allow timothy 
pastures and meadows to remain more or less permanent, with the 
result that the chinch bugs gradually became so excessively abun- 
dant as to destroy the grasses on these areas. In a number of in- 
stances it was found that where the prevailing agricultural methods 
were changed and the infested grasslands were broken up and devoted 
to other crops, the difficulty was eliminated, as the new meadows were 
not attacked. This shows that throughout the country where the 
short-winged chinch bug attacks timothy meadows a rotation of 
crops will be found an efficient measure in overcoming the difficulty 
with a reasonable degree of permanency. 
UTILITY OF KEROSENE IN FIGHTING CHINCH BUGS. 
In fighting the chinch bugs there is at present no more useful sub- 
stance than kerosene, either in the form of an emulsion or undiluted. 
From its penetrating nature, prompt action, and fatal effects on the 
chinch bug, even when applied as an emulsion, it becomes an in- 
expensive insecticide, while it has the further advantage of being an 
article universally found in every farmhouse, and is therefore always 
