Dec, 'o6] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 363 



tised in the North to prevent migration are therefore inappli- 

 cable. In other cases, however, the first generation develops 

 on small grains, more particularly spring oats, and migrates 

 when they are cut to corn, which is then badly injured. Millet 

 and sorghum seem to be favorite food plants, and we believe 

 if properly handled might be used as catch or trap crops, as 

 some preliminary experiments made in 1904 and the experi- 

 ence of practical farmers indicated. 



Needless to state, in Texas as elsewhere, injury is the worst 

 in dry seasons. In 1901 and 1902 the drouth and chinch bugs 

 caused a well-nigh total failure of the corn crop of northern 

 Texas. Old residents who moved to Texas from Illinois where 

 they had known the chinch bug have stated that the pest was 

 injurious forty years ago, though possibly more so, as the land 

 has been brought entirely under cultivation. 



Although no entirely successful remedial measures were dis- 

 covered for the control of the first generation on corn in the 

 spring, some proved so promising that they are worthy of 

 record. 



Both young corn plants but a few inches high, and those 

 nearly ready to tassel, were sprayed with an emulsion made 

 with three gallons of crude Beaumont oil, 13^ pounds of soap, 

 emulsified and diluted with a barrel of water, thus giving about 

 6.6 per cent, of oil. This was fatal to all bugs hit and did no 

 injury to the plants. As Beaumont oil is very much cheaper 

 than kerosene, emulsions made with it are worthy of trial for 

 other purposes in the southwest. Though all the bugs upon 

 the young plants might be killed by the spraying, yet in a day 

 or two others would arrive and thus to be effectual the spray- 

 ing would need to be repeated, which is hardly possible on 

 large acreages. For the older corn the spraying, if the bugs 

 are abundant enough to threaten serious injury, is more feasible 

 and profitable. 



It was noticed that when the hibernated bugs migrated to 

 corn in the early spring they were much more abundant 

 upon fields which had been cultivated and the earth was in 

 clods. Where the soil had been packed tightly around the 

 plants by rains and had not been loosened there were few bugs. 



