122 FARM SPIES 



The other men could hardly keep from laughing 

 at this. "He did not say burying/' Will Brown 

 explained, "but he said barriers. When the wheat 

 and oats are harvested the bugs spread to the corn- 

 fields for food. The young bugs cannot fly and have 

 to crawl, and that is the reason that he suggested 

 barriers between the bugs and the corn. The barrier 

 may be a deep furrow thrown toward the bugs so 

 that they have to climb its steep side before reach- 

 ing the corn. The furrows can be improved by 

 digging holes with a pesthole digger about fifteen 

 or twenty feet apart in the bottom of the furrow. 

 The furrow must be kept clean and in good con- 

 dition." 



"The best barrier, he said, was prepared as 

 follows : around the field where the bugs are, and 

 before they start to travel, make a smooth path 

 and pour upon it a narrow line of road-oil, tar, or 

 creosote. This line the bugs cannot, or will not, 

 cross, provided the line is freshened from time to 

 time. On the side of this line next to where the 

 chinch-bugs are, pestholes should be dug about 

 twenty feet apart and from eighteen inches to two 

 feet deep. The mouth of each hole should slope a 

 little and should be so made that it will touch 

 the line of road-oil, tar, or creosote. The material 

 may be poured from a pot with a spout, in a stream 

 about one-half inch thick." 



