40 THE SPRING GRAIN-APHIS OR 
If we average the 5-year period and calculate the loss on this basis 
for 1907. it wih be seen that the total crop for Kansas, Oklahoma, 
and Texas fell about 50,000,000 bushels short of this average — both 
wheat and oats being considered. Seventy per cent of the Texas 
wheat acreage was abandoned. 
This does not represent the loss as it actually occurred in various 
parts of the States, as some parts of each State were more badly 
affected than others and the good parts would bring up the yield for 
the poorer portions. Sumner County. Kans.. is a good illustration 
of this. It is located in the extreme southern portion of the State 
and was in the badly infested districts. To quote from a letter from 
Mr. George H. Hunter, of Wellington, Kans.. dated February 6, 1908: 
I wish to explain that our crop of winter wheat in Sumner County for the year 1907 
amounted to 1.909.574 bushels; this is our latest estimate, while the general average 
is about four and one-half million bushels for Sumner County, and that would be a 
safe basis for you to figure on. According to our acreage last year, if it had not been 
for the green bugs. I think we would have had at least four to four and one-half million 
bushels of wheat. 
THE SITUATION IX 1911. 
The winter and spring of 1910-11 west of the Mississippi River, 
but not east of it. was such as would tend to bring about another 
invasion from the pest. Some injury was reported, accompanied by 
specimens, from Pecos River valley in southeastern Xew Mexico. 
Mr. J. T. Monell of this bureau, however, visited the locality in 
April and reported the pest as having disappeared without doing 
serious injury. The material received was almost universally para- 
sitized by Aphidius testaceipes Cress., winch probably overcame the 
Toxoptera before its occurrence reached the magnitude of an invasion. 
There was also a limited incipient outbreak in eastern Oklahoma, 
which was investigated by Mr. Kelly. Here. too. the parasites 
apparently gained supremacy before serious injury was done, except 
perhaps in a few isolated cases. 
There is little doubt that the unusual and excessively high tempera- 
ture for even a mild winter that prevailed throughout the Southwest 
during a portion of the winter months was sufficient to revive the 
parasites as well as to aid their host, and thus bring about conditions 
that enabled the parasites to prevent the aphidids from increasing in 
numbers to a point where they were beyond their control. 
