318 



Some may not like my plan on account of losing the use of the rye field the rest of 

 the season ; but it might be put in such things as tobacco or potatoes that Chinch 

 Bugs do not eat ; and better lose it entirely for the season than lose a crop as some of 

 ns are now doing in this vicinity. I do not claim that all the bugs will lay their eggs 

 in the grazed rye-field and none in the wheat ; but I do claim the grazing will draw 

 them and vastly" diminish the evil. — [David M. Scribner, Hickman's Mills, Jackson 

 Countj, Mo., July 7, 1888. 



Two Chinch Bug Appearances the past Year. 



* * * You asked me to give yon a history of the Chinch Bug in this locality. 



* * * They appear on the small grain, wheat and oats, in May, and when that 

 crop has been harvested they go into the corn. They sometimes totally ruin a large 

 field of wheat or oats, and I have seen as much as one acre in one place wherein they 

 killed every stalk of the corn after it had silked and tasseled. They must lay from 

 two hundred to five hundred eggs each, and in three weeks from the time the eggs 

 are laid the bugs are grown or, capable of doing as much damage as they will ever 

 do. I have seen more than one million on a place 60 feet square. They acquire 

 wings at four or five weeks old and fiy away, but they always leave a host behind 

 them, which stay until frost. I find plowing the corn as often as possible the best 

 means of checking them, as by that means a great many of the eggs are covered up 

 and the smaller bugs killed. Light, sandy lands are not troubled with them after 

 June 1, as they make their way into the earth in the middle of the day, and the 

 sand gets so warm by about June 1 that they can not live in it. They do most dam- 

 age on clay and slaty lands, aud stay with us in winter by hiding themselves in 

 rotten wood, boards, old stumps, and on rough stubble lands. A bug called the Lady- 

 bug is thought by some to be connected with them in some way. as they invariably 

 go before the Chinch Bag. The Lady-bug is a red-speckled insect about the size of a 

 small field pea, and the Chinch Bug is smaller than the smallest grain of wheat. In 

 their first stage they are red, in the second stage black, and in the third stage they 

 acquire wings of a whitish color and then they fly away from one place to another 

 and deposit more eggs. — [J. F. Myers, Chesterfield, S. C, June 22, 1838. 



I have the honor to inform you that the Chinch Bug is now putting in an appear- 

 ance, locally only, so far, but very numerous. Barley, of which there is but little 

 grown, however, is destroyed almost completely, and the bug is attacking some corn 

 fields. Wheat is too far along to be damaged by them. The 17-year locust has also 

 appeared, but confines its -ravages to the woods so far. We do not anticipate any 

 trouble from them. — [Paul Lachmund, Sauk Cit^^ Wis., July 9, 1888. 



The Texas Heel-fly. 



I will as soon as possible send you some specimens of screw-worms. If the fly will 

 deposit her eggs in pieces of meat there will be no trouble, but I am told she does not 

 do this. You appear to have misunderstood my letter in regard to the Heel-fly. I 

 thought I stated plainly that the fly did not directly injure the animal. The injury 

 is the result of the annoyance caused the animal. A cow will be quietly grazing, 

 when suddenly she will spring forward, throw up her tail and make for the nearest 

 water at a headlong gait, seemingly deprived for the moment of every instinct except 

 the desire to escape, so that they will rush over a high bluff", if in their way, often be- 

 ing killed by the fall. This, with miring in water holes and the fact that they are 

 prevented from feeding, causes the loss. The fly may appear any time after the last 

 of December whenever we have a few warm days, and will remain until Maj^ if the 

 weather is such that comparatively cool days occasionally alternate with warm, but 

 once the weather becomes settled, they disappear. I can find no one who has ever 

 seen any larvje in the heel. That they attack the heel seems certain from the fact 

 that the animal is satisfied the moment it reaches even shallow water. It has been 



