during the years from 1845 to 1850 the insect ravaged IlHnois and 

 portions of Indiana and Wisconsin, and in 1854 and 1855 it again 

 worked serious injury in northern Uhnois. The writer's earhest recol- 

 lection of the chinch bug and its ravages in the grain fields of the 

 settlers on the prairies dates from this last outbreak. Mr. B. D. 

 Walsh estimated the loss to the farmers of Illinois in 1850 at 

 S4, 000, 000, or $4.70 to every man, woman, and child living in the 

 State. 



In 1863, 1861, and 1865 the insect was again destructive in Illinois 

 and other Western States, its ravages being especially severe in 1864, 

 when we have another attempt at computation of the financial loss. 

 Dr. Henry Shinier, of Mount Carroll, 111., who had carefully studied 

 the chinch bug, estimated that ''three-fourths of the wheat and one- 

 half of the corn crop were destroyed by the pest throughout many 

 extensive districts, comprising almost the entire Northwest." In 

 criticizing the doctor regarding another point, Walsh and Riley'* 

 admit that the estimate was "a reasonable one," and, taking it as a 

 basis, with the actual cash price per bushel, computed the loss at 

 about 30,000,000 bushels of wheat and 138,000,000 bushels of corn, 

 with a total value of both amounting to over $73,000,000. Of course, 

 all computations of this sort are necessarily only approximately 

 correct, but there is more likelihood of an underestimate than of an 

 overestimate in this case. 



There was a serious outbreak of the chinch bug in the West in the 

 year 1868, and again in 1871, but in 1874 the ravages were both wide- 

 spread and enormous. Le Baron computed the loss in 1871 in seven 

 States, viz, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Wisconsin, 

 and Indiana, at $30,000,000. '' Riley computed the loss in Missouri 

 alone in the year 1874 at $19,000,000, and added the statement that 

 for the area covered by Le Baron's estimates in 1871 the loss in 1874 

 might safely be put down as double, or upward of $60,000,000.*= 

 Dr. Cyrus Thomas, however, estimates the loss to the whole country 

 for the same year at upward of $1 00,000,000. '^ 



The next serious outbreak of the chinch bug of which we have an 

 estimate of the losses occurred in 1887, and covered more or less 

 territory in the States of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, 

 Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas. In this case the damage 

 was estimated by the United States statistician, Mr. J. R. Dodge, at 

 $60,000,000, the heaviest losses occurring in Illinois, Iowa, ^Missouri, 

 and Kansas.^ This gives us as the estimated loss in the thirty-eight 



a American Entomologist, Vol. I, p. 197, 1869. 

 b Second Report State Entomologist of Illinois, p. 144. 

 c Seventh Report State Entomologist of Missouri, ])p. 24-25. 

 d Bulletin No. 5, U. S. Entomological Commission, p. 7. 

 c Report of U. S. Commissioner of Agriculture for 1887, p. 56. 

 [Cir. 11.: I 



