56 THE CHINCH BUG. 
ing both bugs and food under and harrowing and rolling the ground 
to keep the former from crawling to the surface and escapiug. I have 
thoroughly tested this method in a case where the bugs, young and 
old, had taken possession of a plat of neglected ground overrun with 
panic grass (Panicum crus-palli), which was mown and promptly 
removed and the ground plowed, harrowed, and rolled before the bugs 
could escape, thus burying them beneath several inches of soil out of 
which they were unable to make their way, and as a consequence they 
were almost totally annihilated, hardly 1 per cent making their escape 
to an adjoining cornfield. 
DIFFICULTY OF REACHING CHINCH BUGS IN MEADOWS. 
There is, however, some doubt in regard to the practicability of 
applying these measures in meadows. Meadow lands can be burned 
over with perfect safety to either the grass or clover, if done while the 
ground is frozen, but there is danger of injury if burned over in 
spring, and it is somewhat doubtful if the hibernating chinch bugs 
would be killed unless the surface of the ground was heated to a 
degree that the grass and clover plants would hardly be able to 
withstand. 
Infested areas of meadow land could be plowed, it is true; but the 
work would have to be done very carefully, else the grass and stubble 
would be left to protrude above ground along each furrow and consti- 
tute so many ladders by which the chinch bugs could easily crawl out 
and make their escape. Where the ground will admit of subsoiling, or 
a " jointer" plow can be used, this latter difficulty can easily be over- 
come. Usually, however, the chinch bug works too irregularly in a 
field to permit of plowing under infested areas without disfiguring it 
too much for practical purposes, especially in the case of meadows, 
unless it be where the bugs have migrated en masse from an adjoining 
field, when a narrow strip along the border can often be sacrificed to 
good advantage. I have witnessed many instances where the heroic 
use of the plow in turning under a few outer rows of corn would have 
saved as many acres from destruction. In the majority of cases it is 
the fault of the farmer himself that these measures are not effective, as 
he will seldom take the trouble to burn the dead leaves, grass, and 
trash about his premises at the proper time, and when there occurs an 
invasion of chinch bugs, instead of resorting to heroic and energetic 
measures to conquer them on a small area he usually hesitates and 
delays in order to determine whether or not the attack is to be a seri- 
ous one, and by the time he has decided which it is to be, the matter 
has gone too far, and the chinch bugs have taken possession of his field. 
This is especially true in the West, where the bugs breed exclusively 
in the fields of wheat and remain unobserved until harvest, when they 
suddenly and without warning precipitate themselves upon the grow- 
ing corn in adjacent fields. In fighting the chinch bug promptness of 
action is about as necessary as it is in fighting fire. 
