1897 THE MICROSCOPE. 25 
infesting cereals, principally corn and the small grains, 
wheat, rye, etc. This apparently insignificant winged 
animal has destroyed hundreds of acres of our western 
grain fields. A field of corn may have a most promising 
green thrifty look today, but in afew days after the at- 
tack of anarmy of chinch bugs nearly every stalk of the 
corn field is deadened and finally falls lifeless to the 
ground; the insects have extracted the sap of the plant 
and thus drawn from it, its life blood. 
When these pests were at their height it was dis- 
covered that an epidemic had set in among them. Dr. 
H. Schimer was the first to discover this disease in 1867. 
Several years later, a practical use was made of such dis- 
eases in destroying these pests on a large scale. 
It was found that the spores of the fungus, Sporotri- 
chum globuliferum could Le propagated in gelatin, on 
potato, or on any organic matter in fact; thus unlimited 
supplies were possible. It was only necessary to trans- 
fer colonies of the spores to the corn fields, and these 
under favorable circumstances, would come in contact 
with the chinch bug, cause infectious disease and exter- 
minate the pests in a few days. An experiment station 
was formed in Kansas where farmers could obtain these 
infected bugs upon application and it is estimated that 
in 1891 $80,000 was saved tothe 444 farmers who used 
this remedy. 
In the course of a few years, it was found that there 
was a serious drawback to the artificial propagation of 
the parasitic fungus on a large scale. It was absolutely 
essential that the meteorological conditions must be fav- 
orable, a certain amount of moisture must be present in 
the atmosphere to insure the spread of the disease. As 
these conditions are uncontrolable it makes the artificial 
spread of the disease impracticable from an economic 
standpoint. 
