142 



AGRICULTURE FOR BEGINNERS 



Treatment. Unfortunately we cannot prevent all of 

 the damage done by chinch bugs, but we can diminish it 

 somewhat by good clean agriculture. Destroy their winter 

 quarters by burning dry grass, leaves, and rubbish in 

 fields and fence rows. Although 

 the insect has wings, it seldom uses 

 them, usually traveling on foot ; there- 

 fore a deep furrow around the field 

 to be protected will impede or stop 

 the progress of an invasion. The 

 bugs fall into the bottom of the fur- 

 row, and may there be killed by 

 spraying with kerosene emulsion. 

 Write to the Division of Entomol- 

 ogy, Washington, for Bulletin 1 5, on 

 the chinch bug. Other methods of 

 prevention are to be found in that 

 bulletin. 



The Plant Louse is very diminu- 

 tive, but is one of the most prolific 

 of animals. During the summer the 

 young are born alive, and it is only 

 toward fall that eggs are resorted 

 to. The individuals that hatch from 

 eggs differ from those born alive in 

 that they have wings, and can move 

 more rapidly from place to place. 



The plant louse gives off a sweetish fluid of which some 

 ants are very fond. You may often see the ants stroking 

 these lice to induce them to give off a more copious flow 

 of the "honey dew." This is really a method of milking. 



FIG. 135. THE PLANT 

 LOUSE 



