20 



Table X. 



Northern Illinois, 224 Towns, Injury to Small Grain, 1887 

 compared with Crop Areas for the Same Year. 



Degree of Injury. 



No. 

 of Tps. 



Wheat. 



Barley. 



Rye. 



Gate. 



Corn. 



Grass. 



None 



120 



334 



138 



403 



3, 055 



4,528 



8,384 



Little 



63 



310 



127 



354 



3,332 



4,951 



7,767 



Moderate 



18 



3t;2 



354 



408 



3,508 



4,412 



7,995 





14 



454 



76 



204 



2,494 



3,784 



6,387 



Great 



6 



461 



307 



384 



2,968 



5,164 



6,706 





2 



236 



49 



299 



1,982 



4,238 



9,617 



Nearly complete 



1 



492 



372 





2,520 



2,582 



2,856 

















A similar set of inferences are to be drawn (although less posi- 

 tively) from Table X., for the Northern part of the State, where 

 the first five wheat numbers show a slight gradual increase, either 

 taken alone or combined with those for barley. 



Table XI. 



Southern Illinois, 191 Towns, Injury to Small Grain, 1887 ^ 

 compared with Crop Areas for the Same Year. 



Degree of Injury. 



No. 

 of Tps. 



Wheat. 



Barley. 



Rye. 



Oats. 



Corn. 



Grass, 





1 



1,439 



6 



4 



1, 875 



2,623 



3,407 



Little 



12 



3,684 



7 



19 



1,468 



3, 152 



2,337 





16 



3, 646 



1 



7 



1,474 



2,415 



'2,242 





64 



3,280 



1 



23 



1,790 



2,880 



2, 594 



Great 



27 



3,201 



2 



15 



1,616 



2,569 



3.208 



Very great 



50 



2, 714 



2 



23 



2,168 



2,720 



3,075 





15 



6 



1,809 





14 



2,221 



2,956 



3,175 



Complete 



1,110 





8 



3,042 



3,008 



5,014 















Passing, now, to the table for Southern Illinois, and omitting 

 the single report of injury "none," we notice, first, a continuous 

 decline in the numbers for wheat, from 3,684 acres to 1,110, and 

 a continuous increase in those for oats, from 1,468 to 3,042, while 

 grass runs irregularly upward from 2,337 acres to 5,014. Corn, on 

 the other hand, varies without perceptible law. The combined 

 acreage in wheat and oats falls away about twenty per cent.; but 

 the total cultivated area is nearly uniform. 



The meaning of these complications seems reasonably clear: — 



1. In a country where the chinch bug has long prevailed and 

 multiplied without check, it outgrows its dependence on any one 

 crop, and with its vast numbers and momentum of increase is able 

 to maintain itself and even to multiply where it would otherwise 

 suffer suppression, — a conclusion which simply fortifies that already 

 drawn from previous notes on the situation in this section. 



2. We shall see later that a part (but not all) of the wheat de- 

 cline is due to a partial abandonment of wheat in regions wliert 

 the loss had V)een most severe in 1886, — a diminution in 1887 ol 

 the wheat area in those regions, as compared with that for 1886. 



