8 
THE CHINCH BUG. 
In many places the fields were cleared, and small grain areas were ploughed up. 
The pest came in some cases to districts that had never before been ravaged ; in mauy 
others the scourge was claimed to be more sweeping than ever before. 
The insect was present in injurious numbers in nearly every county in Kansas. 
Correspondents in Leavenworth, in the extreme east, and Hamilton, on the Colorado 
border, gave the only negative replies. The worst damage was done iu this State. 
The infliction was general in Missouri, except in a belt in the central part of the 
State, not very regular nor wholly untouched, trending northeasterly, and connecting 
with a similar belt in Illinois. 
Further north, no portion of Iowa was exempt, except the northwest corner of the 
State, in proximity to areas of exemption from central Minnesota westwardly through 
Dakota, and near to a similar area iu northern Nebraska. In eastern Minnesota and 
southern Wisconsin, however, the scourge was general and severe. In Illinois com- 
parative exemption was enjoyed in a central belt running in a northeasterly direction 
from Christian to Champaign, and from Adams to Bureau, fifteen to twenty counties, 
in which correspondents responded in the negative as to their destructive presence. 
Elsewhere the pest was nearly universal. 
The southwestern corner of Indiana was alive with Chinch Bugs ; elsewhere, though 
present in much of the area, only about a dozen counties estimated any material 
losses. They were still scarcer in Michigan. Only ten counties in Ohio reported 
their injurious presence; and a few only in Kentucky indicated material damage. 
These insects are reported as more or less injurious in every season of drought and 
scarce or absent in all wet areas. In the area of their depredations the crops have 
an annual value of more than a fourth of the entire agricultural production of the 
United States, and a value nearly four times as great as that of the cotton crop. 
It will readily be seen that the losses must be heavy, undoubtedly greater than those 
of all other insects together, as no such values are involved in other crops subject to 
insect depredations the past year. 
The following table has been prepared from data, severely scrutinized, revised, and 
accurately consolidated. It makes a large sum, and yet does not comprise all the 
damage done to barley and rye, millet, etc., all of which might be approximately 
stated in round numbers as $60,000,000. The record by States is as follows: 
States. 
Corn. 
Wheat. 
, Oats. 
Bushels. 
Value. 
Bushels. 
Value. 
Bushels. 
Value. 
Kentucky 
983, 280 
885, 564 
1,785,000 
1C, 929, 600 
1, 804, 250 
2. 109, 720 
22, 020, 240 
16, 840, 340 
$521, 138 
425, 071 
803, 250 
6, 941, 136 
757, 785 
802, 796 
7, 707, 084 
5, 736, 624 
6, 230, 926 
66, 678 
215, 370 
453, 936 
5, 529, 150 
3, 004, 490 
9, 074, 750 
6, 977, 620 
1, 664, 640 
2, 282, 100 
$48, 675 
161, 528 
326, 834 
3, 870, 405 
1,922, 874 
5, 354, 103 
4, 256, 348 
1, 032, 077 
1,392, 081 
Ohio 
Indiana 
Illinois 
Wisconsin 
Minnesota 
Iowa 
Missouri 
Kansas 
Total 
60, 196 
167, 658 
3, 810, 310 
1, 742, 750 
2, 438, 160 
4, 462, 920 
795, 860 
6, 406, 560 
$19, 263 
48, 621 
1, 028, 784 
487, 970 
633, 922 
1, 071, 101 
206, 924 
2, 438, 497 
78, 922, 384 
29, 925,810 
29,268,734 18,364,925 
19, 884, 414 
5, 935, 082 
1 
Respectfully, 
J. R. Dodge, 
Statistician. 
Accompanying these statements of Mr. Dodge were a number of 
State maps indicating the counties reporting to the Department damage 
from the Chinch Bug. Many other localities had Chinch Bugs in abund- 
ance and considerable damage was done in States not represented in 
