24 SECOND ANNUAL KEPORT OF 



inclined to dispute the statement. It is an unimpeachable fact. The 

 process was repeated till only three or lour bushels could be shovelled 

 out of the holes, when it was abandoned. The corn was completely 

 protected, and yielded bountifully. 



HEAVY RAINS DESTRUCTIVE TO THE CHINCH BUG. 



As the Chinch Bug, unlike most other true Bugs, deposits its 

 eggs underground, and as the young larvee live there for a consider- 

 able time, it must be manifest that heavy soaking rains will have a 

 tendency to drown them out. The simple fact, long ago observed and 

 recorded by practical men, such as Mr. B. E. Fleharty of North Prairie, 

 Knox county, Ills., that this insect scrupulously avoids wet land, 

 proves that moisture is naturally injurious to its constitution. Hence 

 it was many years ago remarked by intelligent farmers, and we had 

 an illustration of it the present year (1869), that very often when the 

 spring opens dry, Chinch Bugs will begin to increase and multiply in 

 an alarming manner; but that the very first heavy shower checks 

 them up immediately, and repeated heavy rains put an almost entire 

 stop to their operations. It is very true that nearly all insects will 

 bear immersion under water for many hours, and frequently for a 

 whole day, without suffering death therefrom; for although animation 

 is apparently suspended in such cases, they yet, as the phase is, 

 " come to life again." But no insect, except the few that are pro- 

 vided with gills like fishes and extract the air out of the water, in- 

 stead of breathing it at first hand, can stand a prolonged immersion 

 in water without drowning. And it must be obvious to the meanest 

 capacity, that an insect, such as the Chinch Bug, whose natural home 

 is the driest soil it can find, will have its health injuriously affected 

 by a prolonged residence in a wet soil. 



In fact the whole history of the Chinch Bug, from the very 

 earliest records which we have of it, points unmistakably to the fact 

 that a wet season affects it injuriously, and often almost annihilates it. 

 arolina and Virginia, during the dry years which preceded 1840, 

 it had become so numerous that the total destruction of the crops 

 was threatened; but fortunately, unlike its predecessors, the summer 

 1840 was quite wet and the ravages of the bug were at once ar- 

 rested. In Illinois and in this State it had increased to an alarming 

 extent during the latter part of the late Rebellion; but the excessive 

 wet summer of 1865 swept them away to such an extent that it, was 

 difficult to find any in the fall of that year. So it was again in 1869- 

 70, and so it always has been, and doubtless always will be. It will 

 be well therefore for farmers to bear in mind, that in U hot, dry sea- 

 son Chinch Bugs are always the worst, and that in a wet season it is 

 impossible for them to do any considerable amount of damage. 



Dr. Shimer, however, is not satisfied with this simple theory. He 

 has gotten up and expounded to the world a new and recondite 

 theory of his own, namely, that in the terrible wet season of 1865, 

 when the Chinch Bug, although in early spring it had appeared in 



