53 
was bought from the manufacturer in person, who was kind enough 
to give careful instructions and to illustrate personally its use in the 
field. 
Two miles south of Carbondale was a field of forty acres of corn 
adjoining wheat infested by chinch-bugs, which had almost com- 
pletely destroyed the corn on an area two hundred and twenty yards 
long and seventy yards in depth. Only a few scattering hills re- 
mained on this strip, and a good deal of this was lying almost flat 
on the ground. Farther within the field the corn was only moder- 
ately infested, but was of course still liable to serious injury by the 
invading host. July 30, when this experiment began, most of the 
bugs had developed wings, though many were still to be found in 
all stages from tlie very young to the lately transformed adult. 
The lamp was first used on fallen hills thickly covered with the 
bugs, many of which, however, were concealed within leaves closely 
rolled for their entire length. When the blast of flame was turned 
upon the corn, many bugs exposed on the surface of the plants fell to 
the ground, where they could easily be killed by following them with 
the flame. Many others, however, would not leave their shelter 
among the leaves, and these were left uninjured. 
Where the field was only moderately infested, scattered adults 
and clusters of them exposed to the flame dropped to the ground 
at once, where they could be quickly destroyed ; but many dropped 
from the side of the hill farthest from the torch, where they could 
not be reached until the operator returned down the other side of 
the row, as only one side of the hill could be treated at once. Indeed, 
for a satisfactory application of this method it would be necessary 
that two men should take a row together, one on each side, operat- 
ing against each hill simultaneously. Even this would not wholly 
prevent the premature escape of the bugs, as many fell from the 
corn two or three hills in advance of the roaring blast and hurried 
away in an efi^ort to escape. Those which remained secreted behind 
the ensheathing bases of the leaves were also, of course, protected 
from injury. In this respect the blast-lamp proved less efficient than 
the kerosene emulsion, since the latter was especially useful in 
reaching the accumulations of chinch-bugs hidden behind the leaves. 
For a more accurate test of the effect of the hot blast ten cages 
were arranged in such a way that the bugs could be treated within 
them and held captive under normal conditions for observation after- 
wards. In one of these cages two hundred and fifty chinch-bugs, 
mainly adults, were flamed with the exit of the blast held for one 
second an inch from the bugs, the pressure having been pumped up 
about to a maximum by two hundred strokes of the piston. The 
