32 



As these last are the stock-feeding crops, the facts may be other- 

 wise ojeneralized by saying that a stock country is much less liable 

 to damage by the chinch bug than one in which the small grains 

 are the staple crops. 



SUMMARY OF CURRENT OPINION. 



Before leaving this subje(^t it may be well to give an abstract 

 of the opinions respecting wheat culture and the chinch bug ex- 

 pressed by econcfinic entomologists, and by the township assessors 

 replying to my inquiry, as given on page 11. 



The only published mention of this subject by Dr. Asa Fitch 

 which I have seen, is contained in his second report as 

 State Entomologist of New York (1856), p. 279, where he says, 

 without committing himself personally, that crops were so de- 

 stroyed in some districts of North Carolina in 1785, or shortly 

 after, that farmers were obliged to wholljr abandon the sowing of 

 wheat; and that again in 1809 the insects were reported to have 

 been subdued by the abandonment of wheat for two years. 



Dr. Wm. Le Baron, the second State Entomologist of Illinois, 

 writes in the "Prairie Farmer," September 2, 1871, "Chinch bugs 

 originate almost exclusively in spring wheat or barley, and we 

 have it in our power, if driven to this necessity, of getting rid of 

 these destructive insects, and keeping clear of them, by abandon- 

 ing the raising of these two kinds of grain." In his second ento- 

 mological report (for 1871), page 154, he remarks that "we always 

 have it in our power to get rid of these pests by the abandonment 

 of these two kinds of grain [spring wheat and barley] for one or 

 two years; but to make this course effective, there must be a con- 

 cert of action by farmers over a considerable section of country." 



The editors of the "American Entomologist," B. D. Walsh and 

 C. V. Riley, say in Volume I. (1869), of that journal, page 171 

 "At last western farmers will be compelled, as those of North Caro- 

 lina have already several times been compelled, to quit growing 

 wheat altogether for a term of years;" and in his Seventh Report 

 as State Entomologist of Missouri (for 1874), p. 36, Dr. Riley 

 remarks that "if in late winter the bugs are known to be numer- 

 ous, it will be well to plant no spring wheat or barley." 



Dr. Cyrus Thomas, the third State Entomologist of Illinois, 

 writing of this matter in Bulletin 5 of the American Entomolog- 

 ical Commission (1879), p. 40, regards the plan of abandoning 

 wheat culture as impracticable, and seriously doubts whether it 

 will be of any real advantage, if wo take into consideration tlie 

 loss of the crop. "That it will be of no permanent benefit," he 

 adds, "I think mast be admitted by every one who is acquainted 

 with the liabits of the species. In order that the remedy be made 

 effectual it would be necessary to transform our land into a 

 desert." 



In January, 1881, discussing in the "Farmers' Review" (Jan. 20, 

 p. 35), the probabilities of injury by cliinch bugs in Kansas and 

 Nebraska, and giving advice as to the best methods of cropping 



