116 



IKJUEIOUS IlfSECTS. 



numbers that I felt afraid to ride my horse among them. 

 The road and fences were alive with them. Some teams 

 were at work mending the road at this spot, and the bugs 

 covered men, horses and scrapers till they were forced to 

 quit work for the day. The bugs took ten acres of that 

 corn, clean to the ground, before its hardening stalks — 

 being too much for their tools — checked their progTess. 

 Another lot passed from a wheat field adjoining my 

 farm into a piece of corn, stopping now and then for a 

 bite, but not long, They then crossed a meadow, thirty 

 rods, into a sixteen -acre lot of sorghum, and swept it like 

 a fire, though the cane was then scarce in tassel. From 

 wheat to sorghum was at least sixty rods. Their march 

 was governed by no discoverable law, except that they were 

 hungry, and went where there was most to eat. Help- 

 ing a neighbor harvest one of the few fortunate fields, 

 early sown — and so lucky ! — we found them moving across 

 his premises in such numbers that they bid fair to drive 

 out the family. House, crib, stable, well-curb, trees, 

 garden fences — one creeping mass of stinking life. In 

 the house as well as outside, like the lice of Egypt, they 

 were everywhere; but in a single day they were gone. 



If any Western fa.rmer supposes that Chinch-bugs can- 

 not be out-flanked, headed off, and conquered, they are 

 entirely behind the times. The thing has been effectu- 

 ally done during the past season, by Mr. Dayis, Super- 

 visor of the town of Scott, Ogle County, 111. This gen- 

 tleman had a corn-field of a hundred acres, growing along- 

 side of an extensive field of small grain. The bugs had 

 finished up the latter and were preparing to attack the 

 former, when the owner, being of an ingenious turn, hit 

 upon a happy plan for circumventing them. He sur- 

 rounded the com with a barrier of pine boards set up 

 edgewise and partly buried in the ground, to keep them 

 in position. Outside of this fence deep holes were dug, 

 about ten feet apart. The upper edge of the board was 



