﻿50 SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT 



at once, if suitable conditions are at hand. Others take readily to 

 wing and scatter over our fields, attracted by preference to grain 

 growing in loose and dry soil, into which they penetrate to consign 

 their eggs. — The eggs are deposited on the roots, and the young bugs, 

 which are red, remain under ground, sucking the roots during the 

 early part of their lives, or until they are forced from necessity to 

 travel from one plant to another. These Spring-hatched bugs, consti- 

 tuting the first brood, do not, as a rule, acquire wings till after wheat 

 is cut. It is, therefore, during and just after wheat harvest, that they 

 congregate and travel in such immense swarms as to attract atten- 

 tion. — In July, as these acquire wings, they scatter over grass, late 

 grain and corn-fields, where they lay their eggs ; but the second 

 brood, hatching from these eggs, generally attracts less attention and 

 does less injury than did the first, because of its more scattered nature 

 and the greater maturity and resisting power of the pi ants. — Anything 

 that will prevent the mother bug from getting at the roots of the 

 grain, will prevent the injury of her progeny: hence the importance 

 in this connection of Fall plowing and using the roller upon land that 

 is loose and friable ; and hence, if old corn ground is sufficiently clean, 

 it is a good plan to harrow in a crop of small grain upon it without 

 plowing at all. The earlier, also, that wheat gets well started and 

 matures, the less it will suffer ; because it may be harvested before 

 the bugs acquire their greatest growth and power for harm : hence, 

 and from the greater compactness of the ground. Winter wheat suffers 

 less than Spring wheat. — Heavy rains are destructive to the Chinch 

 Bug: hence, if such occur in the Fall, the farmer may plant with 

 little fear of injury the following year, while if they occur in May, 

 he need suffer no anxiety, so far as chinch bugs are concerned: hence, 

 also, where irrigation is practicable, the pest may at all times be over- 

 come. — It injures no other plants than grasses and cereals. — In its mi- 

 grations from field to field it may be checked by a line of tar poured 

 on the ground, or by deep furrows or trenches, but the tar must be 

 kept soft and the surface of the furrows friable and pulverized. 



