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REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 79 
arethere. I know of one section in southern Illinois where this has 
been practiced for a number of years by the German farmers, with 
good results.” This remedy is very practical and doubtless can be 
used to good effect under such circumstances. 
The following experiments in burning were made the past season 
at Ames, lowa, by Professor Osborn, and the account is taken from 
his manuscript report : 
On July 16 the stubble adjoining a corn-field was observed to contain large num- 
bers of bugs traveling toward Corn. In the afternoon this migration was going on 
quite actively, and as the stubble was now quite dry it was fired with a view of 
destroying bugs remaining in it. Where tolerably thick, and when there was a 
fair breeze, it burned readily, but it was necessary to take some pains in carrying 
the flame along past thin spots to keep it from dying out. A considerable portion 
of the field, however, was successfully burned over, and-the dead bodies of many 
bugs not completely consumed, which could easily be found on examining the 
burnt area, testified to the destruction of hosts of the pests. The bugs thus killed 
were mostly young Jarvee, the majority of the adults and larger larvae and the 
pupee having already moved out. The number destroyed, however, must, I think, 
have well repaid the little trouble necessary to burn the stubble. 
Early in August the bugs had so multiplied in a field of Hungarian grass that 
no further growth seemed probabie, and most of the field was mown and the hay 
secured. A narrow strip, however, was left next the Corn, the plan being to burn 
this as soon as bugs began passing to the Corn. When the bugs started, however 
(August 13), the grass was not dry enough to burn except in spots. In such places 
as would burn, however, hosts of bugs were consumed. This strip was at once 
mown, and after drying a few hours another attempt made to burn it, as also on 
the following day; but portions -were still too green to burn rapidly, and, unfortu- 
nately fer the experiment, the two or three days following were not hot and dry 
enough to render if fit to burn readily. A few days later, however, on a dry day 
with a fair breeze, most of the strip remaining unburnt was burned over, and ex- 
amination showed that great numbers of young bugs remaining were destroyed. 
Bugs, if under ground or secreted in roots of stubble, will not be killed; hence to 
destroy greatest numbers, as well as to secure most rapid burning, the fire should 
be started in the hottest part of a dry day, when bugs in greatest number will be 
moving. 
PREVENTION OF MIGRATION—DIRECT REMEDIES DURING AND AF- 
TER MIGRAPION.—As has been so often pointed out, a great deal can 
be done in the way of destroying the insects at the time when they 
migrate from the wheat-fields, towards the close of the first generation, 
to Corn and other neighboring crops. 
Ditching.—As long agoas LeBaron’s first paper and as Fitch’s second 
report, the method of digging a ditch or plowing a furrow around 
the infested field was in vogue. If a plowed furrow is made the per- 
pendicular side should be towards the field to be protected and the 
furrow should be kept friable by dragging a log or brush occasionally 
through it, or, better still, a triangular weighted trough. The 
migrating bugs will fail to climb the side of the furrow and will 
fall back into it, where they can be covered with straw and 
burned. With care and activity the neighboring fields can be thus 
protected. 
A modification of this plan appears in an tnplaced newspaper cut- 
ing in our possession. It is as follows: ‘‘ When they first appear, as 
they usually do, on the side of the corn-field, and before they have 
entered it, cut five or six rows of the corn and clear the ground; then 
plow a strip of land 8 or 10 feet wide, leaving a deep furrow in the 
center of the same. Then take the corn-stalks which were taken 
from the land and place them across the dead furrow and the trap is 
complete. When the bugs approach the field they will pass in under 
the corn placed across the dead furrow, and, preferring the shade 
and moisture, remain there until the stalks become perfectly dry, 
