20 State University experimental Station. 



ber had their incredulity shaken to the extent that such expressions as "Now, there 

 may be something in it, after all," were of such frequent repetition that they ceased 

 to be unfamiliar. 



Very fortunately indeed, had the boxes in the station begun nicely to work when 

 a wheat field adjoining town, and up on the east and but a short distance from the 

 station, afforded an excellent opportunity to see something of the practical outdoor 

 results. In this field, owned by Messrs. Cooper &, White, of Abilene, chinch bugs 

 young and old were thriving by the millions. Along the south end is a dense hedge- 

 row, in and about whioh had collected a great amount of rubbish, and here the bugs 

 were observed to die and turn white in exactly the same manner as those in the sta- 

 tion boxes. To the surprise of all interested, the bugs which had so numerously ap- 

 peared very suddenly began to disappear. From one end of the field to the other 

 occasional dead, mold-covered bugs were found beneath olods and in places of hid- 

 ing. The one question always asked by those who had seen the field before and 

 after the disappearance of the dead bugs was, "What has become of them?" To be 

 sure, the dead ones seen were only a very small per cent, of those which had been 

 seen alive, but it must be remembered the sick and dying burrow themselves out of 

 sight, while the live bugs are in plain view upon the ground about the wheat stools 

 or upon the corn hills. The presence of the disease in this field was not due to the 

 introduction of any dead bugs by any known party. I can only account for it with 

 the supposition that the spores of the Sporotrichum had existed over the previous 

 winter in the rubbish of the hedgerow previously mentioned. Several such cases 

 have come to my notice in the last summer's work. It is to be much hoped that my 

 hypothesis is not a false one, inasmuch as the "seed" once sown may live on from 

 season to season, beginning its destructive operations in the early springtime, 

 which former experience has taught is a favorable time for the procuring of favor- 

 able results. I am strengthened in my belief by the fact that the first appearance 

 of dead bugs has invariably been in and near these hedgerows, and also by the fact 

 that the bugs farthest from these places are the last to disappear. 



The work was still further carried on by me in person into a cornfield to the east 

 of this wheat field. Here many visitors found their way, and many gathered their 

 own supplies from the dead bugs which were to be found by the hundreds in the old 

 dead, half-decaying, half-buried stubs of cornstalks from the crop of the previous 

 year. This was a comparatively easy task, since we had simply to pull one of 

 these stalks from the ground from which one end protruded, having not been en- 

 tirely covered by the plow, and then break the stalk apart. I have found as many 

 as 500 white, mold enshrouded bugs secreted within one of these hiding places. 

 Also, along an east and west hedge, upon the north side of the field, the ground in 

 spots among bunches of fox-tail grass was as white as though partially covered 

 with snow, from the presence of the dead bugs. From this time, as far as the sea- 

 son would permit, three men were kept busy at times in keeping up the stock of 

 supplies. At this stage of the work the boxes for a time seemed to rest. However, 

 the growth of mold revived again in about a week's time, although during this 

 period the bugs in the cases seemed unusually sluggish but not dying. From time 

 to time new boxes were put into use, while old ones were cleaned beneath the hy- 

 drant and then sunned. From the central station boxes of supplies, accompanied 

 by the station instructions, were sent to the county substations located at Hering- 

 ton, Enterprise, Solomon, Chapman, Banner, Dillon, Carleton, Manchester, Hope, 

 Talmage, and Sutphen's Mills. Eaoh box thus sent out received the personal care 

 of the director, and all the bugs given out were diseased and killed in the central 

 station. Everywhere the director received the most hearty cooperation of those in 

 position to assist, and for the good of the cause such assistance was gratuitously 



