found the Chinch Bugs in anything hke the numbers in which they 

 formerly appeared. 



A number of farmers have repeatedly tried to grow winter wheat 

 in this locality, but their efforts in this direction have not been 

 crowned with success. In ordinary seasons the ground is too dry 

 to be planted in the early part of September, and the rains usually 

 come on too late to permit the farmers to sow the wheat early 

 enough for it to get a sufficient growth to withstand the winter. 

 Several farmers of my acquaintance have sown a small field of 

 winter wheat in different years ; but in nine cases out of ten they 

 were obliged to plow up the field in the following spring and sow it 

 to some other kind of grain. As there is so small an amount of 

 winter wheat raised in this locality, the Hessian Fly {Cecidomyia 

 destructor, Say), has not made its appearance in numbers sufficient 

 to attract public attention, as it is necessary for the fall brood of 

 these insects to have winter wheat, in the stems of which they pass 

 the winter in the larva state. 



The Colorado Potato-beetle (Doryphora 10-lineata, Say) or "Potato 

 bugs," as they are commonly but erroneously called, were more de- 

 structive the present season than they have been for many years 

 past. By the liberal use of Paris Green the farmers in many in- 

 stances were enabled to protect their potatoes from their attacks ; 

 but in a great many cases a large proportion of the plants had 

 been defoliated before the poison was applied. The remarks on im- 

 ported insects which I made when speaking of the imported Currant 

 Worm, apply equally well to this insect ; for, although it was not 

 imported from a foreign country, yet its native home was in a 

 climate widely different from our own, and this insect has become 

 more injurious to the potato than any of our native species which 

 feed upon this plant. This may be largely due to the fact that it 

 feeds upon this plant both in its larval and perfect state, whereas 

 the other species, with one or two exceptions, feed upon it only 

 while in the perfect state, living in the ground in the larva state, 

 and feeding upon the eggs of various kinds of locusts or grass-hop- 

 pers. These "Old-fashioned Potato-beetles," (as they are commonly 

 called to distinguish them from the Colorado beetle) present a forci- 

 ble example of those anomalous insects which the entomologist 

 meets with occasionally, and which are so difficult for him to deter- 

 mine as to whether they are to be regarded as injurious or benefi- 

 cial insects; for it is very difficult for us to decide whether the 

 injury they do in the adult state is counterbalanced by the service 

 they render us while in the larva state by way of destroying the 

 •eggs of the destructive locusts or grass-hoppers. 



The Imported Cabbage-worm {Pieris rapae, Linnaeus) was more 

 destructive to cabbages the present season than I have ever known 

 it to be in any season past. A few farmers who had taken the 

 trouble to set out and cultivate a small patch of cabbages, finding 

 that these were fast being devoured by these noxious pests, pulled 

 them up and fed them to the hogs. Farmers generally think that 

 it is enough for them to do to keep their cabbages free from weeds, 

 without the additional labor of keeping them free from the attacks 

 of insects ; and this latter, so far as the Cabbage-worms are con- 

 cerned, is commonly much more troublesome than the mere destruc- 



