40 



observer who comes to the following conclusion: "As to burning 

 stalks with a view to destroying the chinch bugs I have but little 

 faith in it. Could the stalks be burned before excessive cold 

 weather sets in, very probably a large portion of the bugs could 

 be destroyed; but by the time the corn can be harvested, and the 

 stalks are dry enough to burn, the chinch bugs have taken to 

 their legs or wings and left for parts unknown." (5) Abstaining 

 from the cultivation of those grains upon which they chiefly sub- 

 sist. He thinks that bugs will probabl}^ not breed in oats to any 

 extent after the first year of their infesting it [since disproven],. 

 and that abandonment of the cultivation of spring wheat and bar- 

 ley, if there is concert of action over a considerable territory, will 

 rid that section of the chinch bug. The presence of chinch bugs will 

 not prevent the raising of corn or winter grains the coming year. 

 Speaking of other proposed remedies he approves of burning badly 

 infested grain just as bugs are about to migrate; says that the practice 

 of sowing winter rye with spring wheat is founded on the mistaken 

 notion that chinch bugs feed on the blades of grain; and regards 

 all attempts to check their depredations by throwing offensive 

 substances upon them as labor lost. Speaking of natural agencies 

 which are destructive to these insects, he inclines to the view that 

 they may be destroyed by the severity of winter as well as by the 

 rains of summer. 



J[ohnson], B. F. — [Letters from Champaign County, Illinois, in 

 Cultivator and Country Gentleman.] 



Apr. 25, 1872, v. 37, p. 261. "The chinch bugs have stood the 

 winter, and are about by millions." May 23, 1872, p. 325. "On 

 May 5, chinch bugs were out by millions. Nothing will save the 

 oats, spring grain, and corn crop, except a continuance of such 

 cool and moist weather as we have had for a week." Aug. 8, 1872, 

 p. 501. "The chinch-bug damages this season are scarcely to be 

 estimated, so limited are they." 



[LeBaron, Wm.] —Chinch-Bug Experiences of 1872. (Prairie Far- 

 mer, Aug. 24, 1872.) 



Article deals chiefly with the questions of the places of hiber- 

 nation and climatic influences. Thinks fallen leaves constitute 

 their "ordinary" or "normal" places of hibernation, and where no 

 trees furnish these, "there is," he says, "good reason to suppose 

 that many of tliem fly to the nearest woodland in order to obtain 

 their natural protection." As exceptional, mentions their being 

 found under bark of logs and in worm-eaten nuts. Says that the 

 chinch bug certainly hibernates in the woods to a sutFicient extent 

 to perpetuate tht^ race, but whether in numbers to threaten crops 

 the succeeding year has not been determined. Considering tlie ex- 

 cessive })revalence of the chinch bug in 1871, and its "almost total 

 disappearance" the next year in the belt of territory where its 

 nivagcs were so serious, he docs not think the fact can be ex- 

 l)lain(Ml by the severe cold with which the winter oj)ened, and the 

 scarcity of snow, but is rather due to the timely r iins in May 



