﻿42 SEVETTTH ANNUAL REPORT 



None of them can be recommended with any assurance ; yet it will be 

 well to enumerate a few of the more plausible, as worthy of more 

 thorough trial, in the hope that some of our Western Agricultural 

 Colleges, having the opportunities and facilities, will be induced to 

 carry out such a system of carefully conducted experiments, as will 

 forever settle the question of their utility — a system which it is impos- 

 sible for the State Entomologist of Missouri to carry out, with present 

 means and duties. 



In June, 1871, Mr. Wm. F. Talbott, of Richmond, Ills., strongly 

 recommended in the columns of the Missouri Republican the use of 

 salt and brine — the salt to be sown with the seed at the rate of about 

 a half barrel to the acre and the brine to be poured on the plants. 

 The recommendation was extensively copied , but subsequent trial has 

 proved that the bugs are not particularly affected by it. Yet as a fer- 

 tilizer and by [invigorating the plant and hastening its maturity so 

 that it will ripen before the insect acquires the greatest power for 

 harm, such an application may prove highly beneficial; and this fact 

 will account no doubt for some of the favorable reports of the use of 

 salt. The same may be said of lime and gas lime which have been 

 extolled by some and denounced by others as chinch bug antidotes. 



There is a very general impression that hemp is obnoxious to the 

 Cliinch Bug, and no end of instances are reported where grain crops 

 surrounded or interspersed with it have been unmolested, while other 

 adjacent fields have been injured. The testimony is, however, 

 somewhat conflicting. Flax, too, is recommended as having the same 

 power of protecting from chinch bug ravages; and Mr. S. T. Kelsey, 

 of Hutchinson, Kans,, who is abundantly able to judge intelligently, 

 and has had good opportunity so to judge, reports that last year, in 

 Kansas, small grain planted on ground where flax was grown the pre- 

 vious year, generally escaped damage from the bugs. He recom- 

 mends sowing with wheat and other grains, one or two quarts of flax 

 seed per acre. "It can be put in early in the spring, even with fall 

 wheat by a light harrowing and rolling, (if a roller can be had) so as 

 to not damage the grain. Its growth could not materially injure the 

 •crop, and if the seed ripened it could be easily separated. Some people 

 sow flax and barley mixed on the same ground, separate the seed in 

 cleaning, and claim that it pays better than sowing either one alone. 

 If flax is really ofi"ensive to the Chinch Bug, so that they will not stay 

 around it, why may we not " flax" the pests out of our grain fields en- 

 tirely?"* 



* Kansas Farmer, Januaiy i;?, 1875. 



