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■[Weed, C. M.]— Chinch Bugs. (Prairie Farmer Sept. 17, 1887.) 



, No practical way of getting rid of the pest yet discovered. 

 ' Where wheat is grown other crops are jeopardized. "Diversified 

 ^farming, with wheat mainly left out, is the best practice we now 

 know of." 



Webster, F. M. — Insect Enemies of Crops. The Outlook. (Farmers' 

 Eeview, Sept. 28, 1887.) 



Objects to statement made in previous issue of paper (Sept. 14) that 

 ' abandonment of wheat as a crop will banish the chinch bug. The 

 I experience of southern planters is directly to the contrary. In 

 i Louisiana, where no wheat or barley is raised, corn is sometimes 

 ' damaged. As to chinch-bug prospects for another year, it is 

 ' scarcely less a meteorological than an entomological problem; 

 ■ consequently it is very difficult and almost useless to predict. 



Indiana Farmer, Oct. 15, 1887, v. 32, p. 14 Chinch Bugs. 



Appear in continuous dry weather. A few weeks of open, moist 

 weather kills them. Favorite breeding place, wheat fields. Will not 

 thrive where soil is strong and vegetation rank. Writer saw them 

 first in Edwards county. 111., in 1855. Probably has been no year 

 in the past twenty in which a few chinch bugs could not be 

 found in wheat. 



Waters, G. W. — The Chinch Bug. (Farmers' Keview, Oct. 19, 

 1887, V. 18, p. 658.) 



Chinch bugs seek winter quarters uniformly in some damp 

 place, — not in dry fodder, etc. Wet weather in winter or an open 

 winter does not hurt them. The winter of 1881-82 was exces- 

 / sively wet and they came forth in the spring "by the bushel." Bugs 

 immersed for a week or more on ears of corn in fodder which 

 had fallen into water and was frozen over with ice, were lively 

 when warmed by the sun. One lot lived in a jar of wet earth 

 for a month without food. Argues, with Mr. Webster, that aban- 

 donment of wheat and oats as crops will not stop their ravages. 

 Strips of rye or spring wheat may serve as traps in the spring,, 

 and, if plowed under in moderately damp weather, the insect will 

 not come out; but if eggs are laid, they may hatch and young, 

 bugs come to the surface. 



AVebster, F. M.— The Chinch Bug. (Farmers' Review, Nov. 23, 

 1887.) 



Refers to letter by Mr. Waters in issue of Oct. 19, as interest- 

 ing and evincing a commendable spirit of investigation. Calls 

 attention to the facts that chinch bugs feed on native prairies 

 and that outbreaks may occur in timothy meadows, — as in 



