﻿62 SEVENTH ANNUAL KEPORT 



of the Report j^ou .epeak of. j. w. c. — Where they exist in stubble, it is found that Fall 

 plowing exterminates nianj' of them. This recently has also been found to be efTec- 

 tual in destroying grasshoppers, that is, where they are turned under pretty deep before 

 being hatched. Your Reports are extensively read by farmers in Northwest Missouri. The 

 only fault being that they are not generally distributed ; but few copies ever find their way 

 here only throuoh our Representative, and they fall far short of the demand. Many of our 

 newspapers, through downright ignorance of what thej' are writing about, speak lightly 

 of the results ot your depai'tment, as they do also of the agricultural department. I 

 think that if your Reports, besides being published in book form, could be distributed 

 in printed slips as fast as prepared, and published in the county papers, at least, a great 

 amount of good might be effected. Nearly every farmer of any intelligence might 

 be reached in that way. The State had better i^ay for the printing of such information 

 in the newspapers than for the publication of the laws, as very few men read the latter, 

 but depend solely for their interpretation upon the lawyers and others who read them. 

 — w. K. 



4 — My estimate of their damage in this county for 1874, is as follows, to-wit. : 



To 1,000,000 bushels corn, at 50 cents per bushel $500,000 



To 40.000 bushels small grain, at same 20,000 



To 2,000 gardens, at $10 each 20,000 



Total damages, actual $540,000 



This is a low estimate. — b. k. You cannot get two farmers to agree about what they 

 were damaged. I believe my corn was damaged at least one-half, or thirty bushels to 

 the acre; my wheat but little. — j. w. c. 



Howard County. 

 8 — None. Was not much distributed or known. — g. w. m. 



4 — The corn suffered more than wheat this year; $50,000 approximate damage — 

 •G. w. JI. 



Iron County. 

 3 — No systematic efforts have been made to check them. Few, if any, copies of 

 your Reports have been distributed here — w. c. 



4— Damage may be divided as follows : Corn, $100,000 to $125,000, (| of the crop); 

 wheat, $30,000 to $45,000; oats, timothy, Hungarian and sorghum, (last destroyed), 

 $20,000 to $30 000. My own experience is that by sowing no Fall wheat, except what 

 can be sown early and well, and rye same, we might in a few years rid ourselves of this 

 pest. I have noticed tliat in a spot manured lightly with stable muck, F'all wheat never 

 suffers. If the ground is strong enough to give a good, healthy straw, carrying plenty, 

 of silica or glazing up with it, they cannot danifige it much, and if stubble and trash 

 was more generally buined, they would not breed in it, or under it, rather. The young 

 broods get out here in the latter half of June, and early wheat is ready for the sickle 

 by the 15th or 20th. Spring wheat seems to encourage and increase them more than 

 anything else. I have not had the time or means to experiment, but think the best way, 

 lifter the way suggested above, to prevent them, or even better perhaps with it, would 

 be to sow thickly a strip of Spring wheat around the Fall wheat, and then when they 

 had sucked it dry, which they would as soon as the Fall wheat was out, and before they 

 began to move for other fodder, set it on fire after nightfall, if practicable, to prevent 

 their Hying from the flames. A strip of sorghum sown or planted in rows would en- 

 tice and delay them, but would not burn unless straw or other combustible material 

 was strewn in it. P. S. — I was hauling stock fodder for my stock the (4her day, and ob- 

 served a great many chinches that were dormant, but quickened when exposed a minute 

 or two to the warm sun, and it occurred to me that after this, whenever I had a corn- 

 •tield infested with Chinch Bug 1 would cut and shock it all up. so that when it was 

 liauled out in the Winter, while the bug was dormant and helpless, they would be ex- 



