30 PAPERS ON CEREAL AND FORAGE INSECTS. 



was of little value. The ground was badly cracked, exposing the 

 wheat roots to the hot sun and drying winds and these, together 

 with the bugs, killed a great many plants. Wheat was so badly killed, 

 mostly by meteorological influences, that. by May 1 thousands of 

 acres had been abandoned and corn planted in its stead. The young 

 bugs and eggs were little molested by the operation of corn planting 

 and as soon as the sprouting corn pushed through the soil hundreds 

 of bugs were ready for every plant. Some such fields were even planted 

 the third time only to furnish food for these hungry insects. The 

 bugs would crawl from beneath several inches of loose soil and be 

 ready to attack the young plants as soon as they appeared. 



Such wheat as was not abandoned made a poor growth on account 

 of drought and was severely damaged by the chinch bugs, great 

 numbers of which were on every plant, so that by June 10 they had 

 sapped the life from them. As the wheat and grasses were killed 

 by the drought, the bugs were forced to abandon wheat fields and 

 hunt for food elsewhere. The corn, which had made very poor growth 

 up to this time on account of the lack of moisture, was very small 

 and weak when the bugs reached it, and this early attack by the young 

 chinch bugs resulted in the devastation of thousands of acres before 

 the bugs became mature. On reaching maturity they abruptly 

 dispersed and their depredations were brought to an end. 



Young bugs of the second generation became numerous the first 

 week of August on the cornstalks under the sheaths and under the 

 outer husks of the ears. Corn leaves, stalks, and husks of ears were 

 dry by the middle of August and bugs were moving out of these into 

 fields of kafir and sorghum, both of which suffered under their 

 attack, many fields being laid waste by September 1. Owing to 

 the continued drought throughout the fall the Indian corn, kafir, 

 cane, and grasses died leaving the chinch bugs without sufficient food 

 supply, with the result that of the vast horde of bugs hatching in 

 August comparatively few survived to go into winter quarters. 

 During September and October a few young chinch bugs matured on 

 volunteer wheat, later depositing a few eggs for a partial third genera- 

 tion. No damage was done to wheat by these few insects, although 

 some of them remained on or about the wheat plants till cold weather 

 set in. There were not nearly so many chinch bugs in the bunches 

 of grass in the fall of 1910 as in the fall of 1909. 



KANSAS, 1911. 



As previously indicated, the fall of 1910 was very dry and wheat 

 failed to sprout in. Kansas and Oklahoma. The winter of 1910-11 

 and the spring of 1911 continued dry, very little rain falling during 

 the entire period till the last of May, 1911. This extended drought 



