6 
As soon as the ripening of badly infested fields of small grain 
begins to compel the chinch-bugs to desert them, a strip of ground 
four to six feet wide should be deeply plowed, around the entire 
field where practicable, or at any rate along the side adjoining 
corn or any other crop liable to attack. This strip should then 
be thoroughly and deeply pulverized, first with a disk harrow and 
then with a brush, until it is reduced as nearly as possible to the 
condition of dust. Next, a short log eight or ten inches in diameter, 
or a triangular trough made by nailing two boards together and 
afterwards loaded with stone, should be dragged endwise back and 
forth in this strip, the driver riding the log or trough if neces¬ 
sary, until a deep groove or furrow has been made across the line 
of march of the chinch-bug host. The sides of the furrow should 
be dressed here and there with a hoe, as may be needful to make 
sure that no passageway out is left for the chinch-bugs which 
will presently accumulate in the bottom. 
If the furrow has been well made, its dusty sides will prove 
impassable to the bugs which tumble into it, especially as these 
move at this time almost wholly on foot. If it is so placed that 
it is directly exposed to the sun, in very warm weather the great 
majority of the chinch-bugs caught in it will be speedily killed 
by the heat, the youngest succumbing first, but even adults finally 
perishing. Nevertheless, to insure their destruction, holes a foot 
in depth should be made in the furrow with a post-hole digger at 
intervals of about twenty feet, to serve as traps for the bugs. 
Here they will accumulate by pints and quarts or even by pecks 
in a place, according to the number in the traveliog horde, and 
in these holes they may easily be killed with a little kerosene or 
coal-tar poured upon them. The post-hole digger may be con¬ 
veniently used for removing them when dead and for dressing up 
the holes again. 
As the myriads of bugs attempt to escape from the furrow, 
climbing its dusty wall again and again with desperate persistence, 
they will gradually lessen the slope by dragging down the dust as 
they fall back, and may thus in time make their way out. It is 
consequently necessary that the barrier should be continuously 
watched and occasionally rectified here and there with a hoe. 
After a time it will perhaps be most convenient to make another 
furrow parallel with the first, abandoning the latter or using it 
for the coal-tar strip presently to be described. 
This furrow and post-hole barrier will work to practical perfec¬ 
tion as long as the ground can be kept thoroughly pulverized, 
but even a slight shower of rain is sufficient to destroy it, releas¬ 
ing the imprisoned chinch-bugs and giving free passageway into 
the threatened field. As a safeguard against this contingency, a 
barrel of ordinary coal-tar should be brought to the field, together 
with a watering pot with a tubular spout and a dipper for dip¬ 
ping out the tar. If a slender line of coal-tar be poured along 
the bottom of the furrow, or on a hardened strip of ground out¬ 
side, it will serve as a barrier to the progress of the bugs no less 
complete than that above described. When first applied it will 
