5 
knowledge thereby gained is turned to profit not only in fighting 
their enemies to greater advantage, but also m protecting their litt 
friends Even since I came into office instances have come under my 
observation where persons engaged in tree culture have wage a 
exterminating warfare against their very, best insect friends, under 
thp imnression that they were fighting their enemies; yet these little 
friends^at the very time they were so ruthlessly slaughtered were busy 
at work destroying bark-lice. The spread of_ entomological informa¬ 
tion is rapidlv correcting such mistakes as this, and learning our 
mers andhorLulturists to distinguish their friends from their foes 
While the Oyster-shell Bark-louse appears to be on the wane, our 
other most common species known as Harris’s Bark-louse, and distin¬ 
guished by its milk-white color and dark red eggs, appears to be on 
the increase and spreading to other trees besides those to which it has 
heretofore been confined. The Maple Bark-louse (Lecanium acencola) 
appears to be rapidly increasing in the northern and central portions 
That*terrible scourge, the Chinch-bug, which in 1874 inflicted so 
much loss upon the farmers of Illinois, has not since appeared in our 
State to any P considerable extent. I have received notice of slight 
damage done during the past season m but one or two limitedlocali¬ 
ties. In some parts of our neighboring State-Iowa-it d d consider^ 
able iniury to wheat and also, I presume, to corn. The losses occa 
sioned by this single species are scarcely appreciated by the farmers 
of this slate. As will be seen from estimates given in this report, and 
made from two entirely different stand-points, and wholly di 
data, the loss on corn alone in 1874 amounted to about 75 000 00° 1 
els. or, counting it at 30 cents per bushel, to 22,500,000 dollars. . ila 
ing all proper allowances for errors there still remains a loss by msec 
that is absolutely startling. A loss which should arouse our farmers 
to the importance of devising some means of preventing this heavy 
drain upon their productive energies. That a very large percentage 
of it may be prevented by proper precaution and vigorous efforts I am 
thoroughly convinced. I have repeatedly pointed out the means by 
which this may be done, but in order to make the remedy effect 
there must be a combined effort. Chinch-bugs never appear in such 
vast numbers as they did in 1874, except where two favorable years 
for their increase occur in succession. Therefore, during the first 
these years a little observation will suffice to reveal the danger to be 
apprehended in the second; the intervening winter, as hereafter 
shown, is the time to apply the remedy. . . , , 
As I predicted in the spring of 1876, no serious injury was done by 
them that year, and a similar prediction proved true in lefeience 
1877 If 1878 should prove to be a dry season more danger is t 
apprehended, but still not to the extent experienced in 1874. lhe 
probabilities are that it will not prove injurious for a year or two 
The strawberries and other small fruits have suffered slightly 
some localities from the attacks of various insects, but no genera e 
struction of any one of these fruits occurred during the past year. 
The Corn Plant-louse occurred in considerable numbers at a few 
points, in a few instances causing sufficient injury to attract the at¬ 
tention of farmers; but I cannot learn that it was very general!) dis¬ 
tributed. The Wheat Plant-louse is increasing in Southern Illinois. 
