CHINCH BUG. 



CHIVES. 



A species of the chincapin (Castanea alni- 

 folia'), remarkable for its dwarf growth, is 

 found in the Carolinas and Floridas. Mr. 

 Nuttall, who met with it in the vicinity of 

 Charleston, S. C., says it grows in small 

 patches in sandy pine barrens, has creeping 

 roots, and seldom exceeds a foot in height. 

 The nut is larger than that of the other species 

 of chincapins. (See NuttalVs Supplement to 

 Jftcfamz.) 



CHINCH BUG. A name, which, from some 

 resemblance to the bed-bug, especially in the 

 disgusting smell, has been popularly applied 

 to an insect often of late years occasioning 

 wide-spread destruction in the wheat, Indian 

 corn, and other grain fields of the South and 

 Southwestern States. Not being able to find 

 any scientific description of this insect and its 

 habits, we shall of course be compelled to cull 

 the best information we can collect from the 

 most intelligent correspondents of agricultural 

 periodicals, &c. 



In the 7th volume of Ruffin's Farmer's Re- 

 gister, there are several communications rela- 

 tive to the chinch bug, some of which draw a 

 most deplorable picture of its ravages in the 

 old counties of Virginia, where the}'- not only 

 often destroy the corn, wheat, and other grain- 

 crops, but lay waste the pastures. They are 

 described as small and black, with white 

 wings ; in their form, close and compact, and 

 about the size of a bed-bug. They creep on 

 the ground, seldom using their wings, and ap- 

 pear to be hardy. Whatever crop they get 

 into, they generally stick about the plants near 

 the ground, although they may sometimes be 

 seen scattered all over stalks of Indian corn, 

 the blades, and even down into the bud. When 

 they attack wheat, oats, &c.,they cluster around 

 the stalk in incredible numbers, and seem to 

 suck out its substance, so that it soon withers 

 and falls to the ground. When they take to 

 the Indian corn, the stalk and leaves sometimes 

 become perfectly black with them, for two feet 

 from the ground, leaving not a spot of green to 

 be seen, except about five or six inches of the 

 tips of the blades, the bugs hanging to the 

 lower portions like bees when swarming. 

 " We are," says one of Dr. Ruffin's corres- 

 pondents, " harvesting our wheat crop, in 

 which they got rather too late to destroy it en- 

 tirely, but on many farms have seriously in- 

 jured it, many places in the fields being quite 

 destroyed. On following after the scythes, you 

 may see millions of the bugs, of all sizes and 

 colours, red, black, and gray, running in the 

 greatest consternation in every possible direc- 

 tion, seeking shelter under the sheaves of 

 wheat, and bunches of grass, which may hap- 

 pen to be near. But all those on the borders 

 of the field, and indeed on every part of it, very 

 oon quit the dry and hard stubble for the more 

 tender and juicy corn or oats, whichsoever 

 may be nearest at hand ; and now commences 

 their havoc and dreadful devastation. We see 

 tne healthy, dark-green, luxuriant oat, which a 

 few days before looked so beautiful and rich, 

 turn pale, wither and die, almost at their very 

 touch. It would seem exaggeration and almost 

 incredible ro state how very prolific this de- 

 runiing insect is, their increase being so pro- 

 H24 



digiously great as to appear to be the work of 

 magic. 



" In one day and night they had been known 

 to advance fifteen or twenty yards deep in a 

 field, destroying as they proceed. Unless some 

 kind dispensation of Providence delivers us 

 from this ruthless enemy to the farming in- 

 terest, it is impossible to say to what extent 

 their ravages will, and may extend, in the 

 course of a year or two. To us fanners, who 

 are dependent on the productions of the earth, 

 for our every thing, it is truly awful. And if 

 their increase in future is commensurate with 

 the past, it must be but a short time before this 

 section of country will be laid waste by this 

 dreadful depredator, and its inhabitants re- 

 duced to want and misery. Every attempt 

 hitherto made to arrest their progress, or de- 

 stroy them, has proved abortive. Some have 

 attempted to drive them from their corn by 

 pouring boiling water over them ; a remedy, 

 for the corn, as bad as the disease. Others 

 try to stop their ingress to the corn-fields by 

 digging ditches around the fields ; but with nc 

 avail, as they are furnished with wings in a 

 short time after they are hatched, and of course 

 can easily fly over the ditches. Would it not 

 be advisable always to sow clover, or some 

 other tender grass, with all small grain, to in- 

 duce the bug to remain in the field after the 

 grain is taken away long enough to enable the 

 corn crop to get size and age, so as not to be 

 seriously injured by them 1 ? I have observed 

 that the older the plant, the much less liable it 

 is to be either injured or attacked." (Farmer's 

 Register.) 



Among the remedies proposed against this 

 destructive insect, are the following : Burn- 

 ing up the leaves and rubbish of any woods in 

 the vicinity of grain fields, so as to kill the in- 

 sects in their winter retreats ; also the stalks 

 of corn, &c., where they are often found. It is 

 said that they are natives of the forest, and 

 that where these are occasionally burnt they 

 never become troublesome. Digging ditches 

 so as to intercept the progress of the bugs, fill- 

 ing the excavations with straw in which the 

 insects generally halt a little while, during 

 which time the straw is to be burnt so as to 

 carry destruction to the enemy. This opera- 

 tion is to be repeated during the day. Burning 

 them up, corn and all, has been attended with 

 advantage in preventing further destruction, 

 and also put an end to the further multiplica- 

 tion of the swarm. 



CHINESE SUGAR-CANE of the North orn 

 Provinces. This member of the Sorjrliura 

 family from Asia, with its confrere tlic Afri- 

 can Imphe'e, have been introduced into the 

 U. S. since 1857. As yet they have disap- 

 poin f ^d the hopes of the many who expocted! 

 them to supply sugar in abundance in exten- 

 sive extra-tropical regions. The plants flour- 

 ish throughout the Southern and Middle States, 

 producing abundance of seed, but as yet the 

 rich saccharine juice yielded by them so freely 

 1ms only partially been made to furnish crys- 

 talline or true cane-sugar. It furnishes a 

 cheap, agreeable, and healthy syrup for the 

 table, and the seed and fodder add greatly to 

 the value of the crop. All animals are eager 



