AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 113 



John Hastings' land near the above corn field. At Dexter Walker's 

 there was a fine field of «orn adjoining grassl and badly infested. It 

 would seem that they do not leave the grass for corn as long as the 

 food supply holds out. Mr. A. K. Price had already plowed his 

 grass land to destroy the insect. If the bugs are bad the land 

 would have to be reseeded and by plowing early and deep, the bugs 

 would be buried and destroyed. We called on Mr. Simeon Charles 

 from whom we originally received specimens and found his fields 

 infested. The most northern place ot their occurrence known to 

 us positively is the farm of Albion Wyman, North Fryeburg, but 

 we have good reasons for believing they occur about Bethel, twenty- 

 five miles further north. They occur throughout East Fryeburg 

 and also in Biidgton, the township on the east. We stopped at 

 several other places than those mentioned and noticed the work of 

 the bugs in several fields as we drove by. The above places men- 

 tioned will outline the infested area, which would appear to be 

 about seven miles long by about two wide. Those who wish a 

 description of this insect will find an account of it in Experiment 

 Station Report, 1892, page 124, besides other information historical 

 and remedial. 



REMEDIES. 



In Illinois and other western states where the chinch bug occurs 

 in great numbers, over large areas, attempts have been made to 

 destroy them by infecting with fungi, the principal one being 

 (White Murcardine, Sporotrichum glohuUfarum , Speg.) 



The results of these experiments have been so uncertain that we 

 regard any attempt to control or destroy the pest by this method 

 in Maine as time wasted. The fact that the insect works in 

 isolated patches makes the problem in Maine a different and diffi- 

 cult one. In the West the bugs affect the wheat and small grain 

 early in the season and as soon as this is harvested they migrate in 

 hordes to the corn fields. In Maine small grain is not grown to 

 any extent. Before haying the bugs live on the grass leaves and 

 after haying do not migrate but transfer their depredations to the 

 roots of the grass, killing everything as they go, remaining in the 

 grass land as long as food supplies hold out. They are particu- 

 larly destructive to timothy grass lands. Chinch bugs are very 

 sensitive to wet weather and are never so bad in damp, rainy 

 seasons. 



The following suggestions may prove helpful in checking the 

 pest : 



