95 



I also quote the following clipping from the Cedar Vale (Chautauqua Co.) 

 Star : 



Infecting Chinch-Bugs. — There is no longer any need of having our crops deetroyed by chinch-bug.s. 

 A remedy that is sure as death and costs nothing, has been discovered and is used in this country with 

 complete success. Mr. M.F. Mattocks, living a mile and a half east of Wauneta, on the H. P. Moser 

 farm, is entitled to the credit of demonstrating in this part, the efficiency of the remedy. He vi'as about to 

 lose his corn crop by the bugs that were swarming into it from the stubble. He sent to Chancellor F. H. 

 Snow, of the State University at Lawrence, and from him received a box containing a half-dozen 

 diseased bugs. With them he exterminated a forty acre field full of the pests. They have died by the 

 millions, in fact, they have about all died from the infection of those six bugs. A little circular of 

 instructions, which he followed out, came with them. The six bugs were placed in a bottle with three 

 or four hundred from the field, and were left together thirty-six hours and then turned loose, both the 

 living ones and the dead, in the field. Devastation followed, and Mr. Mattocks will be troubled no more 

 with chinch-bugs this year. If your crop is in danger you can save it by the same means of getting 

 the diseased bugs in your field. It will cost you nothing and is a dead sure remedy. He has been 

 sending dead and infected bugs to others in the country and to Prof. Snow, whose supply was running 

 down. 



I personally visited Mr. Mattocks's farm and verified the above statements. 



The difficulty of obtaining enough live bugs to experiment with in the 

 laboratory led to the sending out of the following advertisement, which was sent 

 out to twenty prominent papers with requests for its publication : 



WANTED ! CHINCH-BUGS ! 



Prof. F. H. Snow, of the University of Kansas, is in great need of some live and healthy chinch- bugs 

 with which to carry on his experiments in chinch-bug infection. Anyone who will send a small lot of bugs 

 to Prof. Snow, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, will confer a favor on the investigator, and, it 

 is hoped, on the farmers of Kansas. 



This request for live bugs was given wide circulation and resulted in keeping 

 the laboratory fairly well supplied with material for experiment. 



Before the close of the season of 1890, it became evident that there were at 

 least three diseases at work in our infection jars, the " white fungus " (Ento- 

 mophthora or Empusa), a bacterial disease (Micrococcus), and a fungus considered 

 by Dr. Roland Thaxter to be Isaria or perhaps more properly Trichoderma. 



The following report which describes the bugs as " collecting in clusters " 

 points to the bacterial disease as the cause of destruction : 



PiQUA, Woodson Co., Kansas, 7th December, 1890. 

 Dear Sir.— Since writing you from Humboldt, Ks., the 6th inst., I have made the happy discovery 

 that the germs of contagious diseases sent me were vital. On Sunday last upon examination of the millet 

 field I found millions of dead bugs. They were collected in clusters. My idea is that dampness facili- 

 tates the spread of the contagion. The first distribution of diseased bugs two days after I received the 

 package by mail apparently produced no results. A part of them were retained in the infection jar 

 (quart Mason fruit jar) ; half a pint of bugs were collected from the field ; three days later a foul stench 

 was found to emanate from the jar, and a part of the bugs in it were dead. On July 3rd I took advantage 

 of the cool damp evening and took a few buckets of cold water and sprinkled the edge of the millet and 

 distributed more infected bugs. On the 6th I found millions of dead bugs. I think the night and sprinkl- 

 ing the millet caused the disease to spread. We have had no rain in this neighborhood since June 17th, 

 if I remember correctly. The depredations of chinch-bugs are always more serious in dry, hot weather! 

 You have conferred a lasting benefit on the farming interests of the United States, the value of which can- 

 not be estimated in dollars and cents. It was estimated that during one of the visitation years of this 

 insect the damage in the Mississippi valley amounted to ten millions of dollars. I have no doubt that by 

 a proper manipulation of the contagious disease in the hands of intelligent persons it will prove an effective 

 remedy. I think the contagion should be introduced among them early to prevent the migration of the 

 young brood. In my case I received it too late. Early sown millet presents a favorable place to infect 

 the bugs, as they seem to collect in the shade and die. Hoping that when the next Legislature meets 

 an appreciative public will suitably reward you for your beneficient discovery, I am gratefully vours J 



W. jr. McCORMICK. J J -5 • 



The field experiments were apparently equally successful in the months of 

 July, August and September. The following August field-report is inserted as a 

 fair sample of the manner in which the farmers themselves regard these experi- 

 ments : 



Florence, Marion Co., Kansas, November 1st, 1890 

 Dear Sir.— On the 20th of August (I think it was) I wrote to you to send me some infected chinch 

 bugs, and on the 30th of the same month you sent me a small lot of infected bugs, I sui p( -e about 

 *?i?'*^y in all. I then put with these about twenty times as many healthy ones and' kept thun frrtv- 

 eight hours, and then deposited them in and through my field~I have about 55 acres under cultivation 



