The Chinch Bug and Its Control. 27 
applied to green sorghum stubble. It is expensive in its consumption 
of gasoline and will not kill bugs sheltering under small clods of 
earth or in the stubbles of kafir or sorghums. Where such apparatus 
happens to be available, it might be useful in destroying bugs trapped 
along barriers. It might have a further value in burning the stubble 
ot small grains immediately after the crop is harvested and before the 
bugs have completed their migration to other crops. The asphalt 
heater is made for use on paved streets, and to be operated by man 
power. To make it applicable to cultivated ground, it is necessary 
to attach shafts to the handle end and to swing the torches 2 or more 
inches higher on the running gears than would be necessary on the 
street, in order to avoid clogging them with earth. 
Of all heat application, the most effective in destroying chinch 
bugs is the heat furnished by the sun and absorbed by the soil. The 
surface of the soil not infrequently registers temperatures so high 
that the bugs can not survive even a few minutes’ direct exposure, 
soil temperatures from 130° to 150° F, having been recorded in Kan- 
sas and Oklahoma. When caught for a few minutes in a dust fur- 
row or groove barrier heated to such temperatures by a bright sum- 
mer sun the bugs invariably are killed. 
THE SEASON’S CAMPAIGN. 
FALL CLEAN-UP. 
A general clean-up in the fall is important to prevent as many bugs 
as possible from successfully entering into hibernation. All corn 
and sorghum stalks and stubble should, where practicable, be plowed 
under to a depth of at least 7 inches and packed with roller or drag, 
so that the bugs can not escape. This should be done as promptly as 
possible after the corn or sorghum is harvested and before the bugs 
begin to migrate to their final winter quarters. Wherever bunch 
grasses grow on strips of waste land about the farm which will per- 
mit deep plowing, the land should be plowed as above described. 
Bunch grasses growing in meadows, pastures, and ravines and along 
roadsides should be burned, preferably soon after the first freeze. 
The trash, consisting of grasses, dead leaves, etc., occurring in 
hedges, brushy fence rows, brier patches, and woodlands should like- 
wise be put to the torch. This destroys the usual hibernating shelters 
of the bugs, without which few can survive the winter, and results in 
the death of from 50 to 90 per cent of them. Where burning opera- 
tions are conducted in proximity to woodlands, the most careful pre- 
cautions should be taken to prevent setting fire to the timberland, as 
otherwise disastrous forest fires may result. The fullest possible 
value of burning can only be secured by concerted action on the part 
of all the farmers of an infested area in the months of November and 
December. <A good torch for ignition purposes is made by fastening 
