54 
“Ewing College, June 9, 1875. 
“* * * The increase in the devastating Chinch-bug may be ac¬ 
counted for in this way : 
“There has been a constant increase in their numbers for the last 
twenty years. When we consider that our low prairie lands being- 
drained and cultivated, our forests cleared up, our low-lands and 
swamps and marshy plains, converted into rich meadow lands and 
grass fields, there results from this an untold destruction of myriads 
of the Batrachian family—especially of the many varieties of frogs. 
The frog does no harm to the farmer ; he lives upon beetles and in¬ 
sects of various kinds and he is known to consume the Chinch-bug 
with avidity, and his general destruction by the drying up of his 
ponds, pools and reservoirs of water and converting them into grassy 
plains has resulted in the multiplication of the myriads of the Chinch- 
bug by furnishing the latter grasses to eat and killing their natural 
enemies, the former. Another enemy of the Chinch-bug, is the birds. 
There has been for many years a gradual decrease in the Dentirostres 
and Conirostres, the Perchers, and also of theRasores—the latter fam¬ 
ily especiallv are great destroyers of the various insects. 
"“Can we wonder then at the increase of the very beings created for 
their sustenance. If these are facts, and they certairly are, our rem¬ 
edy consists in the propagation of the enemies of the Chinch-bug. 
“Recent observations prove that wet weather is very unfavorable to 
the Chinch-bug; and that a dry spring, and summer are highly con¬ 
ducive to their development and multiplication. In Amherst coun¬ 
ty, Virginia, in 1832-3-4, there were vast numbers of them appeared 
in the spring, but wet weather and frogs kept them from doing any 
damage. 
“In 1855 the Chinch-bug appeared in Franklin county in vast quan¬ 
tities, destroying much of the corn-crops, and the great numbers left 
in shock-fodder w T ere supposed to kill many horses that died in the 
following winter and spring. _ ». 
“In the spring of 1855 they hatched out in vast quantities in tlie- 
wheat fields, prematurely ripening and badly damaging it, especially 
the late wheat. After harvest they immediately emigrated to the- 
adjoining corn-fields, and great efforts were made to destroy them .by 
hot water, chemical preparations and ditching—-the. latter proving 
most successful. The time of hatching their eggs is, in the first 
brood, about the first of June, the second brood about the first of Au¬ 
gust. If copious showers of rain fall at either of those periods much 
damage is done—both to the eggs hatching and the old Chinch-oug.. 
This I am very confident of from a late experience. 
“Within the last week we have had two heavy showers of rain.. 
Before either of them fell, I examined very carefully the eggs, deposit¬ 
ed about twelve or fifteen days ago. They were very abundant on 
nearly every stalk of wheat, always deposited within one or two 
inches of the ground, in the sheath close to the stalk.. There were 
probably an average of 50 eggs on the stalk. This evening, four days 
after the first examination, with a good microscope of twenty-five di¬ 
ameters at hand, I examined the same field of wheat, at the same 
place of my first examination. I found but few old bugs, some of the 
eggs had hatched out, but by far the greater number of eggs were 
