The Chinch Bug and Its Control. 23 
THE GROOVE DRAG. 
The simplest type of effective barrier, and one of the most easily 
constructed and maintained, is made by means of the groove drag 
(fig. 12). This drag makes a combination dust path and shallow 
ditch or groove, as shown in figure 13, both of which the bugs must 
cross before reaching row crops. In dry, hot weather, the dust track 
made by this type of drag is often of itself alone sufficient to check the 
migrating bugs. In wet weather, or when the bugs travel only in 
Fic. 12.—Groove drag used for preparing oil-line barriers, ete. 
the cool of the morning and afternoon, as they are very apt to do, 
it may be made impassable by laying a line of road-surfacing oil or 
crude creosote in the eroove, ) 
The groove drag here shown is constructed of 2 by 12 inch oak 
planks, 2 by 4 inch crosspieces, and an angle iron fence post with 
most of the base cut away. The front or clod crusher section is 
made of four 2-foot leneths of the plank spiked together, with the 
front edge of the second overlapping the back edge of the first about 
2 inches, the third overlapping the second, and the fourth the third. 
This is reinforced by bolting a 2 by 4-inch crosspiece to each section 
of the plank at the middle*of the front edge, and to the back of the 
fourth plank, a 2-inch support block being placed between the back 
edge of the fourth plank and the crosspiece. This section of the drag 
