﻿OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 143 



scarcely be surpassed in the country. Consisting of high, rolling 

 prairie, interspersed, as a rule, with an abundance of good timber, these 

 counties produce a very large amount of corn and stock. Of culti- 

 vated crops, corn is the staple, and, with a most generous soil it has 

 become the fashion to plant and cultivate little else, year after year, 

 on the same ground. The corn fields alternate more or less with pas- 

 tures, and there is just enough small grain to breed and nourish the 

 first brood of chinch bugs which pass into the corn at harvest time 

 and scatter over the country, by breeding and harboring in the corn 

 fields. Not to mention the dilferent means to be employed in counter- 

 acting the ravages of this insect a diversified agriculture is undoubtedly 

 one of the most effectual. It must necessarily follow that the more 

 extensive any given crop is cultivated to the exclusion of other crops, 

 the more will the peculiar insects which depredate upon it become 

 unduly and injuriously abundant. The chinch bug is confined in its 

 depredations to the grasses and cereals. Alternate your timothy, 

 wheat, barley, corn, etc., upon which it flourishes, with any of the 

 numerous crops on which it cannot flourish, and you very materially 

 afi'ect its power for harm. A crop of corn or wheat grown on a piece 

 of land entirely free from chinch bugs will not sufi"er to the same ex- 

 tent as a crop grown on land where the insects have been breeding 

 and harboring. This fact is becoming partially recognized, and already 

 hemp, flax and castor beans are to some extent cultivated in the coun- 

 ties mentioned. But there are many other valuable root and forage 

 plants that may yet be introduced and grown as field crops ; and if 

 the late calamities only awaken the farmers of that country to a full 

 realization of the importance of greater diversification in their cul- 

 ture, the lesson will not be too dearly bought. 



Of root crops that would escape the ravages of the winged insects, 

 and which would grow in ordinary seasons, and furnish excellent food 

 for stock may be mentioned turnips, ruta bagas, mangel wurzel, car- 

 rots (especially the large Belgian), parsnips and beets. Of tubers that 

 are not as profitable but of which it would be well to plant small 

 quantities in locust districts, for the reason, as my friend A. kS. Fuller 

 suggests, that they grow with such ease, and are less likely to be in- 

 jured by the insects, the Chinese Yam, Jerusalem Artichoke (Helian- 

 ihus tuherosus), and the Chufa {Cyperus escule7itus) are worthy 

 of trial. 



LOCUSTS AS FOOD FOR MAN. 



As considerable merriment was made of certain trials made by 

 myself and others to ascertain the value of the young locusts as food, 



