THE NEW EARTH 



studying the chinch-bug at length, an insect 

 which for years has done great damage to 

 grains in the Northwest. At last he hit upon 

 a plan which, while not altogether successful 

 in his lifetime, because, for one reason, of the 

 lack of successful cooperation on the part of 

 farmers, contained a vital principle of large 

 significance. He determined to let the bugs 

 kill the bugs, a simple economic advance 

 which is now in a different form going into 

 practical effect. He knew that there was a 

 disease which in certain seasons attacked the 

 chinch-bugs and carried them off with com- 

 mendable alacrity. He secured this disease in 

 its original form, a low fungous or bacterial 

 growth, multiplied it with great rapidity by 

 laboratory cultivation, sprinkled it in a fine 

 white powder upon the backs of healthy 

 chinch-bugs and set them loose among their 

 fellows, with the result that they at once 

 spread the disease among the other healthy 

 bugs. The disease was then cultivated and 

 sent out in tubes to the farmers with instruc- 

 tions for its distribution. The entomologist 

 died before his work was completed. I do not 

 know that it could have been successfully 



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