18 
1875 
1871 
Loss. 
Loss per cent. 
Kentucky. 
60,200,000 
48,514,060 
11 ,686.000 
:.19 
Indiana. 
05,000,000 
74,624,000 
20,376,000 
.21 
From this we see that the average Tier cent, of loss was 20. The 
estimated difference of the corn crops of Illinois in 1874 and 1875 by 
the same authority, is 146,421,000 bushels or 52 percent. 
Substracting 20 per cent, for loss by drouth we have remaining 32 
per cent., exactly the same percentage obtained by the former method. 
But in this estimate the difference in acreage is not taken into con¬ 
sideration which will lower this result about 5 per cent. But these 
two entirely different methods of arriving at the loss are sufficiently ! 
near to each other to show that we are something near the correct 
amount. They indicate the loss on the corn crop of Illinois in 1874, 
at 30 cents per bushel, as about $20,000,000. 
Twenty millions of dollars is a very large sum to draw from the 
pockets of our farmers without any return, when they have under¬ 
gone the labor and sweat of a summer to obtain it; yet this amount 
was actually taken from them in a single season by the damage done 
by the chinch-bug to the corn crop alone. A sum exceeding four 
times the State tax of 1876, and equal to two-thirds of the entire 
State, county, city, town and district taxes; a sum exceeding twice 
the assessed value of all the hogs in the State; a sum which would 
have paid an army of more than 100,000 persons for six months for 
fighting these pests. And yet there are many who look upon this 
entire subject almost without concern, but behold with terror and 
alarm the ravages of the hog cholera, as well they may. But the loss 
in corn is by no means the full measure of the damage sustained by 
the farmers from this one little insect pest. If we add to this the 
loss on wheat, oats and other crops, thus swelling the sum b)^ millions 
more, we may begin to appreciate the importance of taking some 
active measures toward combating these tiny foes which our agricul¬ 
turists are too apt to overlook, and to consider as unworthy of serious 
attention. Nor can our estimate of the loss occasioned by these insects 
be thrust aside as imaginary and unworthy of consideration, as it is 
not only based upon the same kind of evidence as that from which 
agricultural statistics are usually made up, but it is tested by two in¬ 
dependent methods based upon independent data. I appeal there¬ 
fore to our farmers to look at this matter seriously, and in the proper 
light, and then say whether it is not time to take active measures to 
to put a stop to this immense loss, this heavy drain upon their labor? 
But the Chinch-bug, though doubtless the worst, is by no mean& the 
only insect foe with which the farmer has to contend ; the Wire-worms, 
though hidden from view beneath the soil, are busy at work at the 
roots of his crops ; the Army-worm now and then appears, as if by 
magic, and marches its myriads in review before him, mowing down 
his corn, wheat and timothy as they move ; the Cut-worms let no op¬ 
portunity for annoying him escape ; now and then the Hessian fly 
and wheat midge appear like an epidemic blasting his bright hopes 
of a rich harvest; the Potato beetles, Corn-worms and a host of others 
follow in the wake. 
