The Chinch Bug and Its Control. 31 
method of planting no wheat for two successive years and were satis- 
fied that they destroyed the chinch bug by so doing. 
On the following crops the chinch bug will not feed: Cowpeas, soy 
beans, velvet beans, clovers, peanuts, stock beets, sunflowers, and rape. 
The crop or crops chosen for substitution must of course depend on 
the locality, the prevailing local conditions, and the markets. 
OPERATION OF BARRIERS. 
As the wheat ripens, beginning about 10 days before harvest, the 
bugs become restless. Some climb the ripening stems and continue 
to suck juice from the plant as long as there is any greenness at the 
upper nodes and in the head. Others wander away, finding succulent 
vegetation somewhere, most conspicuously in the nearest cornfield. 
At this time, speed in action against the bugs is vital. Those corn 
growers who have not destroyed the bugs before this migration 
should then devote their best attention to the pest until they have 
destroyed it. To temporize with it is to lose some of the crop and 
much time. 
If the insects have not as yet been controlled by spraying in the 
margin of the field of young wheat, or by other methods previously 
recommended, the quickest efficient barrier that can be constructed 
should be thrown up against them. The groove drag, if made in 
advance, in anticipation of chinch-bug trouble, will be the quickest 
barrier maker. Usually the ground is dry when migration begins; 
if rainy, the wheat continues juicy and migration may be delayed. 
The trench, double trench, and ridge groove or straddle drags re- 
quire preliminary soil preparation with a plow or lister before they 
can be applied. The same is true before a log or barrel can be used. 
These several barriers are made in the following ways: (1) A deep 
furrow is plowed along the sides of the field from which the bugs are 
threatening to invade the corn, the soil being thrown toward the in- 
fested field. A second run of the plow may be necessary to obtain 
sufficient depth to stop the bugs. The sides and bottom are then 
reduced to a covering of fine dust by dragging repeatedly back and 
forth in the furrow, a trench drag, a barrel, or a log. (2) The 
furrow may be made with a lister, the soil being thrown both ways, 
and the surface pulverized as described above. (3) A strip of 
ground is disked and rolled or dragged until there are several inches 
of fine, loose soil and dust, and a furrow is made by means of the 
trench or double trench drag. (4) A ridge is made by throwing two 
furrows up together, and is then pulverized and grooved by means 
of the ridge-groove or straddle drag. In applying barriers against 
the migrating bugs, it may be necessary or at least expedient to con- 
struct a second barrier or even a third. The additional barriers will 
