9 



J//. Morris [Ogle Co.] Gazeiie: Chinch bugs destroying 

 greater portion of spring wheat. ''Also have a fine taste for green 

 com." 



Bureau Advocate: Spring wheat in some neigborhoods is 

 suffering very much from chinch bugs. 



Peairie Farmer, Aug., 1850, v. 10, p.J245. 



Short editorial account of chinch bug, with poor wood-cut. 

 ' Sweeps clean as it goes, covering the plants of wheat or other 

 grain in myriads." Fire had been proposed as a remedy, and were 

 there feasible mode of applying it editor thinks it would answer. 

 "Habits and peculiarities are but imperfectly understood." 



. W., J. A. — Notes in t'le Country. (Prairie Farmer, Sept., 1850, v. 10, 

 p. 266. ) 



Thinks depredations of chinch bugs less serious than have been 

 reported. 



Prairie Farmer, Sept., 1850, v. 10, p. 278. The Wheat Crop. 



From Kane Co., July 13, "Practical Farmer" writes: "Spring 

 , wheat is materially injured, and in some instances totally destroyed 

 by the alarming depredations of a new enemy in the shape of an 

 insect fly or bug. Would not burning over the fields in the fall 



* * * prevent their increase and development?" 



KoBiNSON, Solon. — (Prairie Farmer, Sept., 1850, v. 10, p. 279.) 



Writing from Lake Co., Iowa, July 17, 1850, says that "owing 

 . to the great drouth this year * * * there are now more bugs 

 . than wheat. They are attacking the oats and corn." 



LeBaron, William. — The Chinch Bug. (Prairie Farmer, Sept., 

 1850, V. 10, p. 280. Eepriuted by Fitch in his 2d Kept. 

 Ins. N. Y., pp. 288, 289.) 



Writes from Geneva, Kane Co., Aug., 1850, that bugs are 

 destructive in that region. Season "excessively dry, which has 

 probably been favorable to their multiplication." Appear in June, 

 "confining their depredations at this period chiefly to spring wheat." 

 Suck with 4-jointed beak. Blast wheat, then go to corn, oats, tim- 

 othy, and some wild grasses, in order named. Ordinarily migrate 

 on foot, but adults sometimes fly in swarms. Eggs not seen; sup- 

 posed to be laid in earth about roots. Young and adult described 

 at length. Belong to genus Ehyparochromus, family Lygseidse, order 

 Hemiptera. Does not know whether the insect has been named, but 

 "it might be appropriately called the Ehyparochromus devastator. 



* * * It is scarcely probable that any preventive or remedy 

 . for their devastations will ever be discovered." Hopes nature 

 . may have provided some parasitic insect for this species "whose 



origin and progress seem to be so wholly removed from the reach 

 of human control." 



