﻿34 SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT 



which are offered for the operation. Hence the great advantage of 

 plowing land for Spring grain in the preceding Autumn, or, if plowed 

 in the Spring, rolling it repeatedly with a heavy roller after seeding. 

 And hence the remark frequently made by farmers, that wheat har- 

 rowed in upon old corn ground, without any plowing at all, is far less 

 infested by Chinch Bug than wheat put in upon land that has been 

 plowed. 



Invigorating the Plant by Manure : Early Sowing, Etc. — It has 

 long been observed that Fall wheat suffers less than Spring wheat 

 from this insect, for the simple reason that it generally matures before 

 the bugs have attained their greatest power for harm. The Tappa- 

 hannock wheat, on account of its early ripening, is, for this reason, 

 one of the safest kinds to grow. There is also a strong impression 

 among those who have had a good deal of experience with the insect, 

 that it thrives best on sickly and weakly grain. While in such ques- 

 tions it is always somewhat difficult to distinguish between cause and 

 effect, the following experience of that close observer, Mr. J. R Muhle- 

 raan, of Woodburn, Illinois, would certainly seem to show that the 

 bugs do show some choice of food in a corn-field: 



I had a piece of very vioforons corn opposite my neighbor's wheat, and after it was 

 harvested, that corn nearest the wheat became black with bugs. Now, the small field 

 on which I raised my corn, is various in quality, ranging from rich to barren. My 

 supply of manure did not hold out to cover all the latter, so that the corn thereon 

 grew but slowly and remained weak. About a week after I had first noticed the bugs 

 on that strong fiist-growing corn, as mentioned above, I passed again by it, and found 

 the bugs h;id abandoned it. That corn, and that which grew on the manured portions 

 of the field remained free from the bugs during the remainder of the season, and I 

 began to think the bugs had left entirely; that corn turned out well— as well as it 

 proBiij;ed in the forepart ot the season. 



At the time of cutting the corn I became undeceived, for I found all the weak corn 

 full of the stinkers, suggesting to me that they had thus abandoned the biir heavy 

 stalks, because, as I suppose, the sap flowed too fast for tbeir comfort, and Xhay went 

 at the more etiolated, slowly growing corn. Upon frequent inquiry in different parts 

 of the county, 1 have found that corn growing in bottoms was comparatively free 

 from the bu^rs and made good corn, while upland corn, and especially such grown on 

 rather thin land, was destroyed by them. 



The lesson I would therefore draw from these observations is, that early planting, 

 manuring, and close attention in cultivation, especially on uplands of poor soil, wiW 

 reward the tiller with a reasonable yield, as far as the Chinch Bug is concerned. 



There can be no doubt as to the soundness of the lesson my friend 

 draws in the last paragraph, and much of the freedom from chinches 

 that has been noticed to follow the steeping of the seed in brine, or 

 the use of salt and lime on the soil, may be traced to the vigor which 

 the applications gave to the plants. 



Mixing Seed or Protecting one Plant by Another. — A strip of 

 Spring wheat might be sown around a field of Fall wheat, as suggested 

 by Mr. Carr (see Appendix), so that when the bugs have sucked it dry, 

 or as soon as the Fall wheat is cut, and before they have started for 



