53 



the wheat in fall, if it came up well, the bugs could not 

 breed. On account of the dense shade formed by the timothy by 

 the 10th of May, the eggs deposited on the wheat can not hatch." 



Successful defence of corn. — Mr. Samuel Bartley, of Edgewood, 

 Effingham county, to whose intelligent observations I have been 

 several times indebted, writes me November 20, 1888, as follows: 



"I am very confident that farmers can, by united effort, master 

 the chinch bugs, or at least so check them that their damage to 

 our crops will be slight. The most practical measure I have tried 

 is ditching; and I am satisfied that we can protect ourselves in 

 this way from damage by the chinch bug at very small expense 



"Last year my neighbor had a forty-acre field of oats joining my 

 corn. When he commenced cutting the oats, the chinch bugs 

 commenced to travel toward my corn. I took a harrow and drag 

 and ran a few times along the fence until the ground was quite 

 dusty. I then took a small rail sharpened at the end and, shov- 

 ing it before me, made two ditches about one foot apart. It was 

 a surprise to me to see how few bugs reached the second ditch. 

 In this way I kept them out of my field until a slight shower of 

 rain fell, when a few got in before I renewed the ditches. As 

 soon as they got on the corn, I applied the kerosene emulsion that 

 you recommended, and it killed them instantly, not injuring the 

 <;orn in the least. By these means I kept the bugs out of my 

 corn until they got wings. I think now that if several ditches had 

 been made in my neighbor's oats field after the grain was cut, the 

 bugs could have been destroyed before they developed wings. 



"Several neighbors tried the same plan this year with the same 

 success I have reported." 



Precaution in burning out chinch bugs in spring. — To destroy 

 the old bugs by fire in their winter quarters is often difficult, be- 

 cause the rubbish protecting them will not burn close enough to 

 the ground. Mr. Frederick Helms, of Heinrichstown, St. Clair 

 county, has found that if care be used the chinch bug may be 

 caught by burning after it has crawled out from its deeper re- 

 treat and before it is ready to take wing. He finds that there 

 are a few days in spring during which the insect crawls about on 

 the leaves and dead grass, not yet able or disposed to fly; and 

 this is the time to be selected for burning over woods, headlands, 

 and the like. Instances of protection to his crops by observance 

 of this idea quite bear out his suggestion. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 



From the observations and studies here reported, it appears that 

 severe drouth in the middle and latter part of the summer may 

 diminish the number of the chinch bug by lessening the food 

 supply of the generations tlien breeding aud hatching, and may 

 operate also to protect the crops of the following year, at a dis- 



