103 



numbers in seventeen ; and in numbers sufficient to threaten harm 

 another year in twenty-five; while from thirteen counties it is prac- 

 tically absent. Life history briefly rehearsed and food plants 

 given. The tendency, especially in the southern part of the State, 

 to reo^ard chinch-bug devastations as inevitable, is noted, and some 

 reasons for it given, among which are the following: (1) The 

 number of worthless recommendations that have been made tend 

 to discredit the whole subject of remedial measures. (2) There is 

 ignorance concerning the remedies which have here and there been 

 tried with encouraging results. (3) Measures which have failed under 

 exceptional circumstances or because not thoroughly applied have 

 been set aside as worthless. (4) The failure of individual efforts 

 has discouraged people from concerted action. (5) Preventive 

 measures have been brought into disrepute because these measures 

 have failed when applied as a remedy. (6) Expedients that accom- 

 plish much have been neglected because they did not do more. 

 (7) Many promising measures still lack the endorsement of accu- 

 rate, practical experiment. (8) There is a disposition to speculate 

 on the weather and to count on its being unfavorable to the chinch 

 bug. Under the three heads, agricultural methods, barriers against 

 migration, and direct destruction, remedial and preventive meas- 

 ures, to the number of thirty, are treated very fully, the standard 

 methods being rehearsed, some others suggested, and old ones em- 

 phasized by record of experiments. Winter wheat is said to afford 

 every necessary opportunity for the multiplication of the chinch 

 bug; and the temporary abandonment of corn in regions where 

 small grains are the principal crop is mentioned as an expedient 

 for forcing the midsummer brood to desert the fields and resort 

 to woodlands for food. For those parts of the State not practi- 

 cally mastered by the chinch bug a special procedure is recom- 

 mended. 



Cook, A. J. — Insects Injurious to Grasses and Clovers. (Grasses 

 of North America, v. 1, p. 408.) 



The chinch bug often does millions of dollars' worth of damage 

 in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas. It is more susceptible to 

 seasonal peculiarities — especially to wet weather — than most in- 

 sects. Gives short description of the stages and times of appear- 

 ing. Two- or three-brooded. Neatness in farm operations, leaving 

 no hiding places for them to winter in, is about the only remedy 

 possible. Kerosene emulsion will kill them, bat is hardly a prac- 

 tical remedy. 



Statistical Report of the Illinois State Board of Agricult- 

 ure FOR December, 1887. Circular 138, pp. 21-34. Corre- 

 spondents' Remarks. 



Clark, Craivford, Hamilton, Pope, Richland, Saline, St Clair, 

 Union, Washington, and Williamson Co's. Corn much injured by 

 drouth and chinch bugs. 



