REMEDIAL AND PREVENTIVE VfEASl RES. 63 
Enfested areas of meadow land could be plowed, it is true; bill 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 craw] ou1 
and make theirescape. Where the ground will admit of subsoiling, or 
where a "jointer " plow can be used, this latter difficulty can be easily 
overcome, (Jsually, however, the chinch bug works too irregularly in 
a field to permit (A' plowing under infested areas without disfiguring 
it too much for practical purposes, especially in the case of meadow-, 
uide— 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. In many instance- 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 
fanner himself that these measures are not effective, as he will sel- 
dom take the trouble to burn the dead leaves, grass, and trash about 
his premises at the proper time, and when there occurs an invasion 
y>[' 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 serious one. 
and by the time he has decided which it is to be, the matter has gone 
too far. and the chinch hugs have taken possession of his held. This 
i- especially true in the Y\ est. where the bugs breed exclusively in the 
held- of wheat and remain unobserved until harvest, when they sud- 
denly and without warning precipitate themselves upon the growing 
corn in adjacent field-. In fighting the chinch bug promptness of 
action i- about as necessary as it i> in lighting fire. 
WATCHFULNESS NECESSARY DURING PROTRACTED PERIODS OF DROUGHT. 
It has always appeared to the writer a-- though a little watchful- 
ness on the part of farmer- during periods of drought might enable 
them to determine whether or not chinch bugs were present in any 
considerable numbers in their fields, in time to interpose a -trip of 
millet between the wheat and corn, to be utilized later a- previously 
indicated. Instances have come under observation where, the wheat 
field- being overgrown 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 depre- 
dators beyond the possibility of doing any serious injury. If the 
weather at the time i> hot and dry, a mower may be run over the 
stubble held- or along the borders of them, cutting oil grass, weed-. 
and stubble, as the case may be, leaving them to dry in the hot sun, 
when, in a few hour-, they will burn sufficiently to roast all bugs 
