33 



against them, Dr. Thomas suggests the propriety of sowing winter 

 wheat and of lessening the area planted in corn, basing this rec- 

 ommendation on the supposition that corn aud spring wheat are 

 the crops which assist more in their development than any others. 

 He further advises the farmers of Nebraska, first, to devote their 

 attention, as largely as it can be profitably done, to stock-raising 

 * * *; second, to rely upon winter wheat as their chief 

 money crop, if it can be successfully grown ; and to substitute oats, as 

 far as possible, for corn. * * * "But one thing," he 

 adds, "is certain — that to counteract them the corn and spring- 

 wheat crops should be reduced to as small an area as possible." 

 Later in the same year (Farmers' Review Nov. 24, 1881, p. 322), 

 he advises the planting of a smaller area of corn in the latitude 

 of Central and Southern Illinois in years when meteorological con- 

 ditions indicate danger from chinch bugs. 



In the Transactions of the Illinois State Horticultural Society 

 for 1881, p. 43, Dr. Thomas remarks that the most effectual 

 method of combating the chinch bug is, beyond a doubt, to crop 

 against it, to cease raising so much corn and to rely on oats, 

 grass, and other crops; and in the same "Transactions" for 1882 

 (p. 48), he is reported by the secretary as saying that the chinch 

 bug must perish if the growing of winter wheat and corn are 

 abandoned. 



Prof. Herbert Osborn, of the Iowa Agricultural College, recom- 

 mends, in a bulletin of that institution published in January, 1888, 

 p. 11, that the area planted to wheat, rye, barley, and Hungarian 

 grass be reduced as much as possible. 



In the latest general publication respecting the chinch bug, that 

 by Mr. L. O. Howard, assistant to Dr. Riley, in Bulletin 17 of 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture (1888), p. 34, "diversified 

 farming with wheat mainly left out" is approved as "the exempli- 

 fication of condensed wisdom." "The object of the omission of 

 wheat," he says, "particularly winter wheat, is, of course, to afford 

 as little food as possible for the first generation. * * * The 

 one great result of the chinch-bug convention held in Kansas in 

 1881 was the adoption of a resolution to abstain from the cultiva- 

 tion of wheat, the length of time not being mentioned. As we 

 have previously shown, large areas of oats could be successfully 

 grown, but in corn-growing regions most small grains must be 

 left alone, and, above all, winter wheat and barley." 



My own earlier utterances on this subject, I find to be as fol- 

 lows: — 



Receiving July, 1886, a letter from Clinton county, Illinois, say- 

 iing that crops there had been eaten up by the chinch bugs during 

 the last two years and inquiring whether the abandonment of fall 

 wheat will rid the farmer of them, I replied, in a letter published 

 in the "Prairie Farmer," of Chicago, for July 31, "I know nothing 



S. E.-3a 



