94 



bugs from Morris County, were sickened and killed within ten days. A Lawrence 

 newspaper reporter learning of this fact published the statement that any 

 farmers who were troubled b}' chinch-bugs might easily destroy them from their 

 entire farms by sending to me for some diseased bugs. This announcement was 

 published all over the country, and in a few days I received applications from 

 Agricultural Experiment Stations and farmers in nine different States, praying 

 for a few " diseased and deceased " bugs with which to inoculate the destroying 

 pests with a fatal disease. Some fifty packages were sent out during the season 

 of 1889, and the results were in the main highly favorable. It was my belief 

 that sick bugs would prove more serviceable in the dissemination of disease than 

 dead bugs. I accordingly sent out a circular letter with each package, instruct- 

 ing the receiver to place the dead bugs in a jar for 48 hours, with from ten to 

 twenty times as many live bugs from the field. In this way the disease would 

 be communicated to the live bugs in the jar. These sick bugs being deposited 

 in difierent portions of the field of experiment would communicate the disease 

 more thoroughly while moving about among the healthy bugs by which they 

 would be surrounded. This belief was corroborated by the results. This disease 

 was successfully introduced from my laboratory into the States of Missouri, 

 Nebraska, Indiana, Ohio and Minnesota, and into various counties of the State 

 of Kansas. A report of my observations and experiments in 1889 has been 

 published in the transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, vol. XII., pp. 

 34-37, also in the report of the proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Kansas- 

 State Board of Agriculture in January, 1890. 



The next point to be attained was the preservation of the disease through 

 the winter, in order that it might be under my control and be available for use 

 in the season of 1890. To accomplish this result, I placed fresh healthy bugs in 

 the infection jar late in November 1889, and was pleased to note that they con- 

 tracted disease and died in the same way as in the earlier part of the season. I 

 was not able to obtain fresh materi'al for the purpose of testing the vitality of the 

 disease germs in the spring of 1890, until the month of April, and then only a 

 limited supply of live bugs could be secured. I quote the following from my 

 laboratory notes : 



April 10 : twenty-five chinch-bugs that had hibernated in the field were put in the infection jars. 

 They were supplied with young wheat plants. The bugs appeared lively and healthy. 



April 16 : some of the bugs were dead and all appeared stupid. 



April 20 : all of the bugs were dead. 



One week later, a new supply of fourteen bugs was put into the jar ; they were supplied with growing 

 wheat. They ran substantially the same course as the first twenty-five. Some had died at the end of the 

 first week and all were dead by the end of the thirteenth day. 



The chinch-bug seemed to have been very generally exterminated in Kansas 

 in 1889, and only three applications for diseased bugs were received in 1890 up to 

 the middle of July. On account of the limited amount of infection material on 

 hand, I required each applicant to send me a box of live bugs, which I placed in 

 the infection jars, returning in a few days a portion of the sick bugs to the 

 sender. The three applicants above noted reported the complete success of the 

 experiments. I give the following letter from Mr. M. F. Mattocks, of Wauneta^ 

 Chautauqua County, Kansas : 



Wauneta, Kansas, July 7, 1890. 



Dear Sir :— I received from you a few days since, a box of diseased chmch-bugs. I treated them 

 according to instructions, and I have watched them closely, and find that they have conveyed the disease 

 almost all over my farm, and bugs are dying at a rapid rate. I have not found any dead bugs on farms 

 adjoining me. I here enclose you a box of healthy bugs that I gathered 1^ miles from my place ; I do- 

 not think they are diseased. Yours, M. F. Mattocks. 



