THE CHINCH BUG. 25 
infested. The great problem remaining to be solved is to prevent 
their breeding in wheat fields at all. As has been shown, it is abso- 
lutely 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 country—and these may overwinter in sufficient numbers to cause 
some injury in spring, yet a few timely, drenching rains will out- 
balance all of these factors, and our wisest prognostications fail of 
proving true. It is this very factor of uncertainty that renders 
unlikely the successful 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, when smarting under a heavy loss, will often take 
such long-range precautions as to sow belts of flax, hemp, clover, or 
buckwheat around his wheat fields once; but if the chinch bugs do 
not appear, and he sees the useless investment of time, labor, and 
seed, he will be likely to conclude next year to take the risk and do 
nothing. For the present, then, we have no method whereby we 
can prevent the chinch bugs from taking up their abode in wheat 
fields or timothy meadows and raising their enormous families there, 
except to destroy the adults in their winter quarters. 
The writer once tried to destroy the young in a wheat field by spray- 
ing with kerosene emulsion the small areas of whitening grain that 
indicated where the pests were massed in greatest abundance. The 
result was unsatisfactory, and it is very doubtful if it is possible to 
apply this measure with any degree of success, and we are forced to 
the conclusion that, for the present at least, we shall be obliged to 
rely upon the measures previously given. It therefore becomes of 
the utmost importance to clean up the roadsides and the ground 
along fences and patches of woodland, as well as any other places 
likely to afford protection for the hibernating chinch bugs. There 
are, of course, obstacles in the way of carrying out this plan generally 
over any large area of country, and especially in sections where the 
rail fence predominates. But as the country gets older it will be 
found that it is not chinch bugs alone that seek these places in which 
to pass the winter, but myriads of the other insect foes of the farmer 
as well, and that careful attention to the condition of roadsides, 
lanes, hedgerows, and waste places about the farms, during the 
season when insects seek out these places wherein to pass the winter, 
will pay well for the time expended in that direction. It may come 
about that some phase of the street-cleaning reform may invade the 
country, and it is certain that if such were to occur it would, in time, 
save the country enough to go far toward reducing the expense of 
securing good roads. In fact, the term ‘‘good roads” ought to include 
