22 Contagious Diseases of the Chinch-bug. 
ease, but a microscopic examination of their body fluids roan 
no form of bacterium that may be distinguished from the ordi- 
nary one which accompanies decay. 
Effect of Hard Rains on Chinch-bugs.—I am now more than ~ 
ever convinced of the ineffectiveness of rain-storms as an insecti- 
cide in the case of chinch-bugs. After one of the hardest down- 
pours of rain that I ever witnessed, I observed bugs of all ages 
to be agile and unharmed, and, as near as I could tell, in as great 
numbers as before the rain. Patient search with a hand lens 
revealed no bugs beaten into the ground. Water standing in 
the furrows contained no drowned bugs. Young bugs not two 
days removed from their eggs were busily at work unseparated 
from the numerous brothers and sisters of their family. 
The Burning of Bugs.—The burning over of waste and uncul- 
tivated lands in early spring has been recommended as a feasible 
measure against the chinch-bug. In most Kansas localities 
there is much too great an area which furnishes wintering 
places for the bugs to be burned over; and, as shown in an 
experiment by Mr. Barber, many bugs may escape where the Wa 
fire does not burn close to the ground. 
Effect of Freezing on Chinch-bugs and Sporotrichum.— As shown 
by experiment, the freezing of chinch-bugs in a cake of ice for 
two or three days will not be sufficient to kill them. Sporo- | y 
trichum frozen solidly for forty-three days retained its vitality. 
Hibernation of Chinch-bugs.—The favorite hibernating places 
of the bugs were found to be dense tufts of prairie-grass, where 
they lay at the very bases of the tufts, beneath the old grass 
matted close to the ground. They seemed rarely to winter in 
corn-stalks, even when these were shocked. They were found 
in numbers in a large variety of situations. 
Barriers and Post-hole Traps.—The barrier method for exclud- __ 
ing bugs from corn-fields by means of ridge, coal-tar line, and 
post-hole traps, was experimented with extensively this year, 
and some conditions essential to its effectiveness were demon- 
strated which were not revealed by our 1895 experiments be-— 
cause of some very different meteorological conditions. In 
1895 the early part of the season was unusually dry, and even — 
before the small grain was cut the bugs were in need of new 
pastures, and were migrating en masse to the corn-fields when 
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