REMEDIAL AND PREVENTIVE MEASURES. 51 
WATCHFULNESS NECESSARY DURING PROTRACTED PERIODS OF DROUGHT. 
It lias always appeared to me as though a little watchfulness on the 
part of farmers during periods of drought might enable them to deter- 
mine whether or not chinch bugs were present in any considerable num- 
bers in their fields in time to interpose a strip of millet between the 
wheat and corn, to be utilized later as previously indicated. Instances 
have come under my observation where, the wheat fields being over- 
grown with panic grass and meadow foxtail, the bugs transferred their 
attention to these as soon as the wheat was harvested, and a prompt 
plowing of the ground would have placed the depredators beyond the 
possibility of doing any serious injury. If the weather at the time is 
hot and dry a mower may be run over the stubble fields or along the 
borders of them, cutting off grass, weeds, and stubble, as the case may 
be, leaving it to dry in the hot sun, when, in a few hours, it will burn 
sufficiently to roast all bugs among it, and, while not destroying every 
individual, this will reduce their numbers to such an extent that they 
will be unable to work any serious injury. 
In case the weather at the time should, on the contrary, be wet and 
rainy, so that it is impossible to mow and burn, the prompt distribution 
of the fungus Sporotrichium will prove of immense value; for in this 
case the more the bugs are massed over a limited area, the more fatal 
will be the effects of the fungus, and especially will this prove true if 
the land is low and inclined to be damp. This statement will also hold 
good with reference to meadow lands during the breeding season, 
though later the adults do not appear to succumb to the effects of the 
fungus nearly as readily, and I have found it present in spring among 
masses of hibernating individuals, with little indications of its conta- 
gious nature, only an occasional individual being attacked. 
UTILITY OF KEROSENE IN FIGHTING CHINCH BUGS. 
In fighting the chinch bug there is at present no more useful sub- 
stance than kerosene, either in the form of an emulsion or undiluted. 
From its penetrating nature, prompt action, and fatal effects on the 
chinch bug, even when applied as an emulsion, it becomes an inex- 
pensive insecticide, while it has the further advantage of being an 
article of universal use in every farmhouse, and is therefore always at 
hand for immediate use. The emulsion has the further advantage of 
being capable of sufficient reduction in strength to prove fatal to insect 
life and yet not injure the vegetation upon which such may be depre- 
dating. Diluted and ready for use, the emulsion is prepared as fol- 
lows: Dissolve one-half pound of hard soap in 1 gallon of water. 
preferably rain water, heated to the boiling point over a brisk fire, and 
pour this suds while still hot into 2 gallons of kerosene. Churn or 
otherwise agitate this mixture for a few minutes until it becomes oi' a 
cream-like consistency, which, on cooling, will form a jelly-like mass 
which adheres to the surface of glass without oiliness. For each gallon 
