14 Contagious Diseases of the Chinch-bug. 
gist of Ohio, gives the following account of the artificial spread- 
ing of the white muscardine in that state last year: 
‘*T have always held to the opinion that the parasitic fungus, Sporotrichum 
globuliferum, could only be used, in a manner to offer relief to the farmer, dur- 
ing wet seasons, and where there was a superabundance of the host insect, and, 
though I have been severely criticized, am of this opinion still. For years I have 
been waiting such a combination of conditions, as they do not often occur, owing 
to the fact that wet weather during the hatching season is fatal to a large per 
cent. of the young, but not until the present year have my hopes and desires in 
this direction been gratified. To learn that a measure will fail under adverse 
conditions is but half satisfactory, and before one can feel at all satisfied the 
same measures must be tested under favorable conditions. 
This year | can say that, with all conditions favorable, Sporotrichum globuliferum 
has done all that Professor Snow or any other entomologist has claimed for it, but un- 
der conditions as adverse as these have been favorable, the results will prove quite 
the reverse. While I do not find any reason for the immunity from attack, this 
year, over the area where this fungus was distributed last year, believing that 
this can be accounted for by peculiar meteorological conditions, it saved farm-. 
ers thousands of dollars where it was used this season. Where ap- 
plied early in June, though it did not save the wheat crop, it did in many cases: 
so reduce the number of bugs before they had advanced far into the corn-fields 
that they were rendered powerless. In wheat-fields, where an early application 
was made, the furrows and other depressions in the surface were soon white with 
diseased bugs, and in the mellow ground of the corn-fields a slight displacing of 
the upper surface with the foot would revéal myriads of their dead bodies inter- 
mixed with the soil. One farmer told me that upward of 1000 neighboring farm- 
ers had visited his fields to secure dead bugs to place in such of their own fields 
as were infested, and I have myself seen good results from this method of intro- 
duction, taking pains to compare the conditions in such fields with those exist- 
ing where Sporotrichum had not been introduced, and where careful search 
failed to reveal its presence. 
‘While the practical value of this fungus has, in past years, probably been 
overestimated, it is to be regretted that there is at present a tendency to rush to 
the opposite extreme. Statements to the effect that it is of no value to 
the farmer, or that artificial introduction is useless, as when the 
conditions are favorable it will appear in a natural manner and do 
its work, are, to say the least, ill advised, and true only under cer- 
tain conditions. It is worthless to the farmer during a period of drought, or 
when the bugs are scattered, but it is practical and effective under conditions 
the reverse of these. It will sometimes appear in the fields ina perfectly natural 
manner, but this is uncertain, and we have here only one of many instances where 
science can and does facilitate and accelerate the usually slow mechanism of nature.’ 
In 1896 Prof. Otto Lugger, state entomologist of Minnesota, 
supplied over 1200 farmers with spores of Sporotrichum. I 
take from his report* the following interesting statements : 
‘‘Whether it is a coincidence or not, one thing became very 
apparent: wherever large numbers of the disease spores had 
*Second Annual Report of the Entomologist of the State Experiment Station of the University 
of Minnesota, 1896. 
