94 . “ 
bugs from Morris County, were sickened and killed within ten days. A Lawrence 
newspaper reporter learning of this fact published the statement that any 
farmers who were troubled by chinch-bugs might easily destroy them from their 
entire farms by sending to me for some diseased bugs. This announcement was 
published all over the country, and in a few days I received applications from 
Agricultural Experiment Stations and farmers in nine different States, praying 
for a few “ diseased and deceased” bugs with which to inoculate the destroying 
pests with a fatal disease. Some fifty packages were sent out during the season 
of 1889, and the results were in the main highly favorable. It was my belief 
that sick bugs would prove more serviceable in the dissemination of disease than 
dead bugs. I accordingly sent out a circular letter with each package, instruct- 
ing the receiver to place the dead bugs ina jar for 48 hours, with from ten to 
twenty times as many live bugs from the field. In this way the disease would 
be communicated to the live bugs in the jar. These sick bugs being deposited 
in different portions of the field of experiment would communicate the disease 
more thoroughly while moving about among the healthy bugs by which they 
would be surrounded. This belief was corroborated by the results. This disease 
was successfully introduced from my laboratory into the States of Missouri, 
Nebraska, Indiana, Ohio and Minnesota, and into various counties of the State 
of Kansas. A report of my observations and experiments in 1889 has been 
published in the transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, vol. XII., pp. 
34-37, also in the report of the proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Kansas 
State Board of Agriculture in January, 1890. 
The next point to be attained was the preservation of the disease through 
the winter, in order that it might be under my control and be available for use 
in the season of 1890. To accomplish this result, I placed fresh healthy bugs in 
the infection jar late in November 1889, and was pleased to note that they con- 
tracted disease and died in the same way as in the earlier part of the season. I 
was not able to obtain fresh material for the purpose of testing the vitality of the 
disease germs in the spring of 1890, until the month of April, and then only a 
limited supply of live bugs could be secured. I quote the following from my 
laboratory notes: 
April10: twenty-five chinch-bugs that had hibernated in the field were put in the infection jars, 
They were supplied with young wheat plants. The bugs appeared lively and healthy. 
April 16: some of the bugs were dead and all appeared stupid. 
April 20: all of the bugs were dead. 
One week later, a new supply of fourteen bugs was put into the jar ; they were supplied with growing 
wheat. ‘Chey ran substantially the same course as the first twenty-five. ‘Some had died at the end of the 
first week and all were dead by the end of the thirteenth day. 
The chinch-bug seemed to have been very generally exterminated in Kansas 
in 1889, and only three applications for diseased bugs were received in 1890 up to 
the middle of July. On aceount of the limited amount of infection material on 
hand, I required each applicant to send me a box of live bugs, which I placed in 
the infection jars, returning in afew days a portion of the sick bugs to the 
sender. The three applicants above noted reported the complete success of the 
experiments. I give the following letter from Mr. M. F. Mattocks, of Wauneta, 
Chautauqua County, Kansas: 
Wauneta, Kansas, July 7, 1890. 
Dear Sir :—I received from you a few days since, a box of diseased chinch-bugs. I treated them 
according to instructions, and I have watched them closely, and find that they have conveyed the disease 
almost all over my farm, and bugs are dying at a rapid rate. I have not found any dead bugs on farms 
adjoining me. I here enclose you a box of healthy bugs that I gathered 14 miles from my place; I do. 
not think they are diseased. Yours, M. F. Marrocks. 
