40 
THE CHINCH BUG. 
All of these were efficacious. Fortunately at the time when such ap- 
plication is to be made, viz, just after wheat harvest, help is abundant 
and the work can be done at a reasonable expense. Experiments made 
by Professor Forbes show that a simple mechanical mixture of one part 
of kerosene to three of water will kill the bugs and will not injure half- 
grown corn if it is kept constantly agitated. But the original soap 
emulsion, recommended so often in the reports of this Department and 
made according to the formula originally proposed by Mr. Hubbard, 
will be much safer and will do thorough work. It will do no harm to 
repeat this formula : 
Kerosene 2 gallons = 67 per cent. 
Common soap, or whale-oil soap i pound > qo „„„ 
Water I gallon M per cent> 
Heat the solution of soap and add it boiling hot to the kerosene. 
Churn the mixture by means of a force-pump and spray-nozzle for five 
or ten minutes. The emulsion, if perfect, forms a cream which thickens 
on cooling, and should adhere without oiliuess to the surface of glass. 
Dilute before using one part of the emulsion with nine parts of cold 
water. The above formula gives 3 gallons of emulsion and makes, 
when diluted, 30 gallons of wash. 
We realize the objections to recommending anything complicated in 
the way of a mixture and of apparatus for apply iug it, and in conse- 
quence we may state, as showing that an ingenious individual who is 
in earnest need not be hindered by lack of a proper apparatus for apply- 
ing this mixture, the experience of Maj. R. S. Tucker, of Raleigh, N. C., 
as published in the News and Observer, and in a special bulletin of the 
State Department of Agriculture, Raleigh, June 29, 1887. His letter 
stated in brief that having tried a number of remedies he learned of the 
kerosene emulsion at a time when the pest was most abundant upon 
the outer rows of corn. Not having any force pump or spray-nozzle with 
which to churn the emulsion, he whipped the mixture in a large recep- 
tacle with a bunch of twigs for ten or fifteen minutes and then applied 
it to his outer rows of corn with a common water-sprinkler. The results 
were admirable, and certainly he deserved success for his trial. 
Another practical test was made by Professor Atkinson, and reported 
upon in the bulletin just mentioned, as follows : 
Mr. William F. Stroud, of Chapel Hill, had a field of wheat which was infested 
with the chinch bugs. When the wheat was harvested they immediately betook them- 
selves to the corn which was adjacent. Some of the corn stalks for 1 foot or 18 inches 
above ground were literally black with the mass of insects, and sometimes wheu they 
could not be seen outside they were found in great numbers between the sheath of the 
blade and the stalk. 
[Here follows the kerosene-soap emulsion formula just given.] 
I found these proportions made the liquid a little weak, and I diluted in the pro- 
portion of six parts of cold water to one of the emulsion. The application of this to 
