of salt and air slacked lime, but without any visible effect, and it is 
not probable that any quantity of such substances which we could 
reasonably apply to the soil would be effective in preserving our crops 
from these insects. But in the other point of view, that of hastening 
the ripening of the grain and thus placing it in advance of the depie- 
dations of the bugs, this plan seems to me to be well worthy of a trial. 
I was informed by a farmer living in Dixon, that he tried sowing salt | 
with his spring wheat, at the rate of one barrel to two and a half 
acres, and that upon the field so treated, the crop was much larger 
than on the other portions, and ten or twelve days earlier The 
effects of the salt will differ, of course, to some extent, like other 
applications, according to nature and condition of soil. 
“The attempt to save a part of ovr crops hypreventing the'migration of the 
bugs from one field to another. 
“It is well known that when the small grains become too mature 
and dry to afford nutriment to the chinch-bugs they migrate in vast 
numbers into the adjoining cornfields, and generally destroy from a 
half dozen to a dozen or more of the outer rows, and nothing but the 
great extent of the fields of the West, and the exuberance of the 
plants, which at this time have nearly completed their growth, pre¬ 
serve the corn crop from the same destruction which has overtaken 
the smaller grains. . , 
“As this migration takes place before the young brood have acquired 
wings they necessarily travel on foot, and various attempts have been^ 
made to intercept their progress. The principal of these are a succes¬ 
sion of furrows plowed across their path, and a barricade of fence 
boards besmeared with coal tar or kerosene oil. The first plan, but 
very partially successful, is so simple and easy of execution that it is 
always worthy of trial. I was informed by some farmers .who prac¬ 
ticed” it the past season, that it very materially checked their progress 
for the first day or two, so long as the furrow was fresh and the earth 
friable ; but that a shower of rain or heavy dews for a succession of 
nights so consolidated the earth that the insects could pass over. 
“The other plan is much more effective, but also much more trouble¬ 
some and expensive. It consists of a barricade of fence boards placed 
end to end and set edgewise into the ground, with the upper edge be¬ 
smeared with some offensive substance, the one most commonly used 
being coal-tar. This method has been extensively resorted to the 
past season in the central part of the State, and especially in the 
neighborhood of the Bloomington gasworks where the coal tar is ex¬ 
tensively manufactured. I was informed by one of the proprietors of 
the gas works that nearly one hundred and fifty barrels of tai had 
been purchased at that establishment for this purpose. I had an op¬ 
portunity of seeing this method put in practice, on a large scale, on 
the farm of Mr. Joshua Sells, of Bloomington. At the time of my 
visit Mr. Sells had discarded the boards as an unnecessary trouble 
and expense, and had adopted the simple and more expeditious plan 
of running a stream of tar from the spout of an old teakettle diiectly 
upon the ground along the exposed sides of his cornfields. He found 
