34 



from my own observation of the chinch bugs to lead me to be- 

 lieve that yon will escape them by giving up winter wheat as a 

 crop. Certainly they have been fearfully destructive in the north- 

 ern part of the State at times when winter wheat was not at all 

 raised there, laying their eggs freely in spring wheat, barley, etc., 

 and the fact that I personally know them to deposit their eggs 

 abundantly in spring in oats and corn, and to breed there appar- 

 ently no less freely than in wheat, makes it very unlikely that 

 they are limited to any [one] of the small grains as a means of 

 support to the first brood." 



Next, in a circular concerning the chinch bug in Illinois, issued 

 September 10, 1886, page 5, I said: 



"The leading remedial and preventive measures are as follows : — 



"1. The abandonment of small grain for a year in regions where 

 corn is the principal crop, in the hope that the bugs of the first 

 brood will thus be starved out. Where this experiment is tried 

 it will be necessary for a fair chance of success that no small 

 grain be sowed (since, as already said, the bugs will breed in 

 oats); that the planting of corn be postponed as late as practi- 

 cable, else the bugs will surely breed in that with very destruc- 

 tive effect; and that no millet or Hungarian grass be sown early 

 enough to afford food and breeding places to the hibernating brood 

 after they emerge from their winter retreats." 



Finally, on page 35 of Bulletin 2 of the entomological office,, 

 issued in 1887, I have mentioned under the head of Agricultural 

 Methods, "the temporary abandonment, in corn districts, of small 

 grain, especially wheat and barley. This measure of defence, in 

 use for more than a century, is the one most generally relied 

 upon. Its at least partial efficacy is now clearly demonstrated 

 throughout a large part of this State where the chinch bug is 

 making its advent almost wholly by way of fields of wheat and 

 barley. It is to be noted, however, that when the number of this 

 insect has risen to great excess, it can not be reduced again by 

 simply refraining from the culture of wheat and barley. It has 

 been repeatedly shown in Southern Illinois, during the last two 

 years, that under such circumstances the bugs will breed as freely 

 and successfully in oats as in other grains; while recent occur- 

 rences in New York prove that the meadow grasses afford them 

 almost equal opx)ortunity." On page 42 of the same bulletin, as 

 a special procedure recommended for Northern and Western Illi- 

 nois, where the chinch bug was only beginning to attract atten- 

 tion, I mention the abandonment of wheat, rye, barley, Hun- 

 garian, and millet for the coming year, or, if grown, the sowing of 

 timothy and clover with the wheat. 



My township correspondents, while not unanimous, were usually 

 of the opinion that chinch bugs were most abundant in neighbor- 

 hoods where wheat was grown, — more generally so in the southern 

 part of the State than in the other sections. Thirty-nine replies 



