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bug outbreak was a community problem in which all were alike, tho 

 unequally, interested. 



Demonstration fields, on which the precise best method of prepar- 

 ing and caring for a chinch-bug barrier was practically illustrated, 

 were, of course, an important feature in our program, and a number 

 of such fields were selected by each field assistant, arrangements being 

 made in advance with the owners for their proper management. These 

 demonstration fields were in the neighborhood of the following eighteen 

 towns: Edwardsville and Highland, in Madison county; Vandalia, 

 Hagarstown, Shobonier, and Vera, in Fayette county; Fairman, Ver- 

 non, Patoka, and Selmaville, in Marion county; Albers, Germantown, 

 and Bartelso, in Clinton ; Ashley, Nashville, Oakdale, and Caspars, in 

 Washington county, and Coulterville, in Randolph county. 



The season of 1911 was a very trying one for the road-oil line, the 

 weather being excessively hot and the ground extremely dry, the 

 months of May and June in the chinch-bug area averaging 5 degrees 

 and 4.1 degrees respectively above the normal, and June and July 

 temperatures rising repeatedly to 100 degrees or more in the shade — to 

 105 degrees at Sparta and Duquoin, for example, on July 4. The June 

 rainfall was less than half the normal, and that for May and July was 

 only a third the normal for this area. The soil in the sun was, of 

 course, very much hotter — so hot as to make even road oil No. 6 sink 

 into the dry earth much too quickly, requiring its frequent renewal at 

 an increased expense for labor and materials except where the pre- 

 caution had been taken to make a shallow groove for the oils down 

 the middle of the ridge or path. For these reasons the cost of opera- 

 lions on the experimental and demonstration fields ran much above 

 that of the preceding year, from fifty cents to $2.00 per mile per 

 day for the road oil used, and from ninety cents to $3.50 per mile 

 per day for labor. Even at these rates, however, the work done with 

 the road oils saved so many acres of corn and oats that it Avas com- 

 monly regarded to have returned *to the farmers many times its cost. 

 Nevertheless, the experience of the season led us to substitute road 

 oil No. 7 for No. 6 the following year, and in this we had what was 

 virtually a perfect material for the purpose. 



Road-oil No. 7 in 1912. — The greater part of the area infested in 

 1912 having been already covered by our demonstrations of the pre- 

 vious year, the use of new fields was secured for this purpose only in 

 the newly invaded territory. These were all, however, successful and 

 useful. At Reno, Bond county, for example, a tract of forty-seven 

 acres was selected in which there were fourteen acres of rye, thirteen 

 acres of wheat (both the foregoing in young timothy also) , twelve and 

 a half acres more of wheat which was so infested by chinch-bugs that 

 it was plowed up and sown to cow-peas, and seven and a half acres in 

 oats. This tract, with corn on three sides and a part of the fourth, 

 was completely surrounded by a back-furrow and coal-tar barrier, 



