46 THE CHINCH BUG. 
In this case Professor Lugger states that both Entornophthora and 
Sporotrichium were present and the latter was sent byhini to Professor 
Forbes, so there is the same confusion of the two fungi in this case that 
existed in my own experiments in Indiana, except that in the one case 
it was certain that Entomophthora was present, while in the other it 
was the Sporotrichium. 
The work of Professor Snow in Kansas. — While Professor Snow had 
the experience and observations of Shinier, Forbes, and Lugger to aid 
him in his first efforts to apply the knowledge gained by these gentle- 
men, yet it must be said that it has been largely due to his untiring 
energy and perseverance that the use of these fungi has reached the 
present state of importance. It will hardly be saying too much if we 
state that his persistent undaunted labors, in the face of much skepti- 
cism and opposition, has won for him the admiration of his fellow- 
Ayorkers, even among those who were long in extreme doubt as to the 
success of his labor. He has done more than any other one person to 
call attention to the possibilities of practical benefits to be derived by 
farmers themselves; has done more to advertise the merits of these 
fungous diseases among the masses than any one else, and, in fact, has 
made the " chinch-bug fungus n almost a household word over the entire 
United States. 
It is therefore all the more to be lamented that he should have 
accepted and published in his several reports the unsubstantiated 
statements of farmers whose testimony on a matter of this nature is, 
as every entomologist knows, absolutely worthless unless accompanied 
by specimens. From my own personal experience in this direction and 
in several States I have long ago disregarded all reports relating to 
the efficiency or inefficiency of these fungous diseases among chinch 
bugs, when such came from the ordinary farmer without being accom- 
panied by specimens for examination. The cast pupal skins of the 
chinch bug pass with nonentomologists very well for dead bugs, and if 
the former have been attacked by the ordinary white molds the decep- 
tion, except to the eye of an expert, is complete. 
It is with extreme reluctance and with anything but ill will toward 
Professor Snow that his voluminous reports on the " Contagious dis- 
eases of the chinch bug" have been cast aside as quite worthless and 
only his laboratory experiments accepted. He has, no doubt, accom- 
plished much in his State toward assisting the agriculturist in fighting 
the chinch bug, but much is left for others to prove by the care and 
caution that should have characterized his own work and conclusions. 
There is probably not an entomologist who has used these fungous dis- 
eases to distribute among farmers who has not found just such condi- 
tions as did Professor Lugger, in Minnesota, where it was impossible 
to determine whether these diseases had been introduced artificially 
or whether they were already present and had been overlooked. In 
my own experience, while receiving chinch bugs from different parts of 
