143 



July 9 : More Sporo bugs were scattered along the advance line of the 

 chinch bugs. The bugs had made very little headway since the 2d of 

 July. From '2 to 3 gross of infection boxes are filled with Sporo 

 from this field daily. The bugs, both old and young, seem to be but 

 si)aringly present in the field. Here and there a very few live bugs 

 may be found in the axils of the leaves and under clods. 



July 13: The Sporo is continually increasing in the field, but there 

 is a larger number of live bugs on the corn in places than could be seen 

 on the 9th. 



July 16: There was a heavy rain on the 15th, There are plenty of 

 Sporo bugs for picking, and pickers are still at work and have not 

 ceased since they began on the 5th. 



July 18: Sporo is increasing over the field, but the bugs are numer- 

 ous in occasional spots throughout the field. These bugs are of all 

 ages, but adults greatly predominate. The dead bugs or mummies 

 gathered by the pickers now include large numbers of little red bugs 

 as well as the pupj^ and the adults, 



July 22 : A visit to the field shows the live bugs reduced to a satis- 

 factory minimum; probably not more than 1 to 2 per cent of the num- 

 ber which blackened the stalks for from 2 to 3 feet above the ground 

 for 20 rows when the infection was first introduced. The entire field 

 promises an abundant crop of corn and even the outer lows where the 

 attack was most severe are well eared and luxuriant in foliage. 



From this field the pickers have already gathered 7,000 boxes of Spo- 

 rotrichum-covered bugs as a reserve stock for early distribution to the 

 farmers for use in the wheat fields in the spring of 1895. If in every 

 township in the State of Kansas infested with chinch bugs a similar 

 gathering should be made by the township trustees and distributed to 

 the farmers early in the spring the chinch bug, in my opinion, would 

 soon be reduced to an Tininjurious minimum, 



A NEW ALFALFA AND WHEAT PEST. 



On March 24, 1894, Mr, Ezra Main, of Jewell City, Kans., forwarded 

 me a box of cutworms, stating that these worms were destroying the 

 wheat in his neighborhood, taking it clean as they went. 



On March 31, Mr. William H. Chance, of Linda, in extreme western 

 Kansas, forwarded me a box of the same species of cutworm, stating 

 that they were in his wheat by the million and destroying it rapidly. 

 I sent my son, Mr. W. A. Snow, to examine the situation, and append 

 his notes as follows : 



March 30: Visited field of wheat about 3 miles southeast of Jewell City, with Mr. 

 Ezra Main, the correspondent. Hot winds had prevailed for several days prior to 

 my visit, and the frost and wind had injured the wheat in that part of the State. 

 Wheat was only 3 or 4 inches high and much of it lying flat. The field attacked by 

 the cutworms belonged to Mr. John Lamon. His wheat had been taken clean for 

 several rods into the field. The day of the visit was warm and sunshiny. The 



