39 



Mr. Samuel Bartley, of Edgewood, Effingham county, also writes 

 me, November 20, that he used the emulsion this season (1888) 

 with entire success in connection with ditches to arrest the prog- 

 ress of the bugs.* 



On the other hand, a letter from Hon. E. S. Wilson, of Olney, 

 dated July 17, 1888, informs me that, while the emulsion kills 

 the bugs that are on the corn at the time, others come on it ab 

 once; and that he does not know of a single man who had saved 

 his corn where he had used the emulsion. 



It will be seen, however, that it was here used under the mis- 

 taken idea that, once applied, it will act as a permanent repellent. 

 Where chinch bugs are excessively numerous, it should be used 

 subordinate to some method for the exclusion of the insects from 

 the field, and applied to those accumulating on the outer rows of 

 corn wherever they succeed in making their way across the bar- 

 riers interposed. 



Where the attack is less severe, the emulsion may be applied 

 alone after the movement of invasion is substantially complete, to 

 destroy the chinch bugs along the edges of the field. Indeed, it 

 is not impossible that it may be economically distributed to corn 

 throughout the field, after the hatching of the second brood, for 

 the destruction of the young that do the later damage. If this 

 can be done at a cost of seventy cents per acre, there are many 

 circumstances under which it could hardly fail to be profitable. 



Dr. R. S. Peyton, of Pinckneyville, writes me of a can, carried 

 on the back, with which he finds that he can work over two or 

 three acres per day with the kerosene emulsion or hot water, be- 

 sides hauling and heating the water in the field. It is possible 

 that kerosene, either pure or in the form of an emulsion more or 

 less diluted, might be mingled with fertilizers, liquid or dry, and 

 thus distributed to wheat in a way to combine the beneficial effects 

 of both applications with no additional labor. 



Tobacco water. — Thinking it possible that some preparation 

 , cheaper than the kerosene emulsion might be found equally avail- 

 able for use, I directed experiments in August, 1888, with various 

 insecticides, the most satisfactory of which were those with tobacco 

 water. 



A strong decoction of the stems being made, August 14, a num- 

 ber of chinch bugs, placed on a cloth moistened with this fluid, 

 were thoroughly stupefied in an hour, and dead in an hour and a 

 half. Tobacco water of this strength repeatedly apijlied as freely 

 as possible had no effect on growing grass. 



August 15, nine bugs were treated as above, removed when wet 

 with the tobacco water, and placed in a bag of cheese cloth. Ex- 

 amined 22 hours later, six were found dead and the remaining 

 three alive. 



♦See his letter near the close of this article, under the head of Miscellaneous Notes and Obser- 

 vationa. 



