8 STATE UNIVERSITY EXPERIMENTAL STATION. 



came to him for supplies of infection, and he declares, "almost to a man, the 

 reports were similarly successful." The time for results to be seen was the 

 same in the majority of cases. A few white-fungus-covered bugs were found 

 in Mr. Price's field. I can vouch that where there had certainly been many 

 bugs, there were none worthy of mention at the time of my visit. It has 

 not fallen to my lot to see the bugs "bunching, burst, and die," if burst and 

 die they do, as reported so often by men of intelligence. 



In conclusion I have to say, that the season, so far as my observations ex- 

 tend, has been, all things considered, a very good one in percentage of suc- 

 , cessful reports. The percentage of favorable reports will average, I think, 

 about the same as last year's, notwithstanding the fact that, while chinch-bugs 

 were more generally distributed throughout the State this year, they have not 

 been nearly so numerous in the fields in which they made their appearance. 

 The observation that the infection works more rapidly and a more complete 

 extermination where the bugs are thickest holds good for this season as it 

 did last. A large number of the unfavorable reports I consider to be due to 

 the want of sufficient numbers of bugs in close proximity to each other for 

 successful work. Nowhere have I found a chinch-bug disease prevailing as 

 an epidemic this year, from the fact just stated. Upon the whole, the condi- 

 tions of our present season have, I think, been less favorable than those of 

 last. 



My work as your agent has been attended with no unpleasant circum- 

 stances, as far as the people of our fair State are concerned. Everywhere 

 I have met with the kindest treatment. I find the interest in field-pest ex- 

 termination fast increasing among the farmers who openly welcome the aid 

 of science in both the cultivation and care of their crops and also in the ex- 

 termination of pests destructive to the products of their toil. With the aim 

 and work of the Experiment Station, I have everywhere found the people in 

 sympathy and watching with interest the final outcome of artificially-prop- 

 agated infections for pest extermination. In such education they express 

 themselves as seeing an economic value worth to the State of Kansas a 

 thousand times the cost expended upon it. Yours obediently, 



Ernest C. Hickey. 



F. 



IV.-EEPORT OF A FIELD TRIP BY ASSISTANT STEVENS. 



H. Snow, Director of Experimental Station .- 



Acting under your advice, I started, July 13, for Reno county, Kansas, 

 where several packages of infection material had been sent. A letter had 

 been received at your office from Mr. Hyde, living near Pretty Prairie P. 

 O., stating he had applied infection in his corn field, and asking for further 

 advice. I reached Mr. Hyde's farm on the morning of the 14th, and we went 

 at once to his corn field. There I found the bugs had worked in about 10 



