17 
take the average crop of the entire State as estimated by the Secreta¬ 
ry— 339,608,973 bushels—we find that a loss of 32 per cent, amounts 
to the enormous sum of 108,674,871 bushels, which at 30 cents per 
bushel gives $32,602,461, a sum sufficient, it would seem, to startle 
every farmer in the State. But since it is not likely that we will 
ever have a season in which a full crop will be realized in all parts of 
the State, and as the acreage was less in 1874 than now, in order to 
arrive at a correct estimate of the loss that year we should take as a 
basis the actual acreage then in corn and an average actual yield 
throughout the State. The acreage of corn as given in the Auditor’s 
report was 7,797,850, at 30 bushels to the acre (which is 5 less than the 
Secretary’s estimate,) this gives 233,935,500 bushels as the yield the 
farmers had a right, under ordinary circumstances, to have expected 
for that year. Thirty-two per cent, of this is 74,859,360 bushels, which 
at 30 cents per bushel amounts to 22,457,800 dollars,—the loss on the 
corn crop alone in Illinois in 1874 by the Chinch-bug. 
In order to test the result thus obtained we have fortunately anoth¬ 
er method of calculation depending on an entirely different basis. If 
we take the amount of corn produced in the State in 1874, which was 
the year of drougth and chinch-bugs,—and 1875—which was a good 
crop year, and ascertain the difference, this will show the loss occa¬ 
sioned by all causes. If we can find any means of eliminating the 
per cent of loss occasioned by drougth, we will then be able.to give a 
somewhat close estimate of the loss occasioned by the chinch-bug. 
By reference to the annual reports of the National Department of 
Agriculture for 1874 and 1875, the corn yield for these years will be 
found as follows: 
Year 
No. of Acres. 
Bushels 
corn 
produced 
Average 
yield 
per acre 
1875 . 
8,163,265 
280,000.000 
34.3 
1874.. 
7,421,055 
133,579,000 
18. 
Diffprpnrp . 
146,421,000 
16.3 
Without taking the difference in acreage into consideration, the 
loss per cent, taking the crop of 1875 as the basis, would be 53, But 
this method fails to eliminate the increased production of 1875 occa¬ 
sioned by the increased acreage. Let us therefore take the number of 
acres planted in 1874,—7,421,055,—and multiply it by 16.3 the differ¬ 
ence between the yield per acre in 1874 and 1875. This gives a total 
loss of 120,963,196 bushels in 1874; but this includes the loss from 
drougth as well as the loss occasioned by the chinch-bugs. 
It is fair to presume that the corn crop suffered about as much from 
dry weather in Indiana and Kentucky in 1874 as in Illinois. The 
loss on this crop in these states may therefore be taken as a basis for 
an estimate of the loss from the same cause in Illinois. I select these 
states because, although suffering from drouth, they were not ser¬ 
iously troubled by insects, yet doubtless suffering to a certain extent 
from them. 
The corn crops for the years 1874 and 1875 as estimated by the sta¬ 
tistician of the Agricultural Department were as follows : 
—2 
