30 THE WHITE-FUNGUS DISEASE IN KANSAS. 
of the previous inoculations were looked for and the general situa- 
tion examined. Diseased bugs were found in both plots, more being 
found in the check. Recent rains that had moistened the soil now 
showed no effect on the surface, except where the wheat was rank. 
Bugs were dead in all parts of the field, and in many places the dead 
bugs were as numerous as in the infected plot. Under the straw that 
had been packed around the wheat there were more diseased bugs 
found than anywhere else ; but there were no more, apparently, near 
the piles than at a distance from them, so that the infection had not 
spread, to any appreciable degree, at least. 
Chinch bugs, young and old, swarmed along the wheat rows, with 
no more dead ones in the infected plot than outside of it, or in 
many other parts of the field. Clearly the artificial infection had 
yielded no results. The wheat was showing the effects of dry 
weather as well as the attacks of the bugs. It was found that the 
beans gave entirely negative results. While the ground remained 
moist longer beneath them, the chinch bugs did not frequent them 
to any extent. 
On June 12 the Lynch field was again visited. The greatest num- 
ber of living, as well as of diseased bugs, was found in the check 
plot, with its rank wheat. Conditions elsewhere were about as they 
were on the previous visit. The wheat had turned }^ellow and was 
nearly ready for harvesting. In the 25 days since the first infection 
in which the artificially sown fungus had been allowed to act, the 
moist conditions resulting from two periods of precipitation had 
favored the growth of Sporotrichum. On the whole, however, the 
period had been dry. The drought had not prevented a general 
spontaneous outbreak, but it probably checked its severity. The 
artificially infected plot had not only the bugs dead of the Sporo- 
trichum naturally present, but it had relatively enormous quantities 
of culture fungus, so that as to intensity of infection it was much 
more thoroughly treated than would have ever been possible with 
diseased bugs, or than it would have been had the spores been spread 
over an entire field. The artificial inoculation was a failure in that 
it did not perceptibly decrease the number of bugs in the 50- foot 
plot, when compared with the area about it and with the check ; nor 
did the fungus spread from the treated plot or the straw piles. The 
check had more diseased bugs than the treated plot, but this may 
have been due to the moister conditions produced by shade or to 
greater numbers in the first place. Apparently the presence or ab- 
sence of the culture fungus did not affect the problem. 
As check fields to the Lynch fields, three were examined, the near- 
est being about a fourth of a mile distant, the other two one-half 
and three-fourths of a mile distant, respectively. None had been 
artificially infected, yet each contained diseased bugs. 
