﻿56 SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT 



and separated by a public road and fences. The latter field was sowed to barley in Sep- 

 tember, 1S78 — harvested in June last year. The crop was light — only 25 bushels per 

 acre, when it should have produced 40. I did not know even at harvest, that the chinch 

 bugs were the cause of the short crop. This barley stubble was plowed as quick as 

 the grain could be taken oflF, and on the first ot July the ground was nicely planted 

 with sprouted corn. The corn came up quickly— the ground being rich it grew fast and 

 had a dark green color — but when about eight or ten inches high, I noticed that the 

 bugs were thick on it. It seemed to withstand the effects of the bugs until four feet 

 high, when it was then attacked by a kind of cut-worm of a green color, and the chinch 

 bugs and the worms together completely ruined it. I would like to know more about 

 this worm. [Probably the Fall Army-worm ; see 3d Rep ] I hope you will excuse this 

 digression. I have stated facts— they may be of some use.— t. o. Your Second 

 Report has not been distributed in this section of the county.— r. h b. No efforts that 

 I am aware of, systematic or otherwise, have been made to overcome its ravages, except 

 that it has perhaps induced somewhat earlier planting. Your Second Report alluded 

 to, has not been distributed or known among the fnimers of this county, except per- 

 haps a few that may have been distributed by the members of the Legislature.— w. c. r. 

 All crops considered, I should think it would be from $30,000 to $40,000.— h. g. w. 



Carroll C'ninty 



3— No systematic efforts have been made to destroy it. Your Second Report re- 

 ferred to, is not very generally distributed among the farmers, and very little is known 

 of it. Like many other similar documents, it helps to fill up the lank libraries of land- 

 less lawyers and impecunious country editors. A State Senator has promised me a set 

 of State Agricultural Reports for the library of Van Horn Grange, (now numbering 125 

 volumes) but 1 presume the promise will be forgotten.— h. s. h: 



4-1 have no data from which to estimate the monev damage, but the wheat was 

 badly shrunken, and three-fourths of the corn crop entirely destroyed this year by the 

 chincli bugs. Dry, hot weather is favorable to its developmeni. In wet seasons it 

 does very little damage, * * *. — h. s. h. 



Cass County. 



3— [All the correspondents agree in stating that no systematic efforts have been 

 made; and that little or nothing is known of my Second Report.] 



4— Five hundred thousand dollars would be a low estimate of the amount 

 of damage done by this pest in Cass county this year.— w. h. b. It is im- 

 possible to even approximate an estimate ot damaires. They injured Spring wheat 

 and barley to such an extent that there has been no attempt for several years to 

 raise either. Winter wheat was not injured as much in 1874 as in some previous 

 years. Oats crop reduced at least 40 per cent. Corn (the principal crop culti- 

 vated) was injured to such an extent by drouth and bugs that the south lialf of the 

 county will not average over ten bu-hels per acre, and that of very poor quality— prin- 

 cipally chargeable to the bugs, from the fact that occasional fields more favorably situ- 

 ated, (by being partly or altogether surrounded by timber, at greater distances from 

 fields ot small grain, etc.,) made a fair average yield regardless of drouth. * * * 

 —II. L. H. Can't make an estimate of the amount of damage done in the county this 

 season. It was immense. They reduced the wheat and corn crop from one-fourth of 

 an average yield to an entire failure.- p. c. ii. The damage sustained by them in Cass 

 county this year was fully 50 per cent.— d d. The amount of damage in this county 

 is enormous. Corn nearly ruined, wheat and oats badly damaged.— w. a. s. 



Cedar County. 

 3~[A11 the correspondents state that plowing *and ditching and dragging were 

 alone resorted to; and that nothing is known of my Second Report.] I can't say just 



