88 
September 13, this correspondent wrote: “I am pleased to in¬ 
form you that your chinch-bug disease is a decided success. I used 
bugs as directed, and those on my farm are dying off rapidly. 
How can I save bugs for spring use?” 
September 29, this place was visited by my assistant Mr. Mar¬ 
ten, who learned that the spores received from us were put into a 
cigar box with chinch-bugs and leaves of oak and corn. The box 
was wet whea stocked, and, subsequently, every other day while in 
use. The bugs began to die, according to Mr. C.’s statement, in 
a day or two, and were scattered in the field about August 20,— 
five days, that is, after the receipt of the material,—being placed 
behind the sheaths of the leaves of the corn. There was a slight 
rain on this date, barely enough to lay the dust; the weather was 
showery for two or three days following; and on the 24th there 
was considerable rain, enough to make the roads muddy. In two 
or three days after the infection of the field dead bugs were nu¬ 
merous behind leaf sheaths, but more abundant on the upper side 
of the base of the Kaf in the groove over the midrib. September 29, 
at the time of Mr. Marten’s visit, dead bugs could be found in 
all parts of this field of twenty-three acres, but were most numer¬ 
ous where the infection material had been distributed. Unfor¬ 
tunately, however, for the conclusiveness of this report, a vial 
containing several hundred dead bugs, mostly pupae and adults, 
collected by Mr. C- about September 20, exhibited no evi¬ 
dence whatever of the presence of Sporotrichum, although kept 
after receipt by us in a situation to favor the development of 
molds. Many of them are covered with a white fungous growth, 
but it is a Penicillium not to be confounded on the most casual 
microscopic examination with the Sporotrichum of the white mus- 
cardine. Specimens obtained by Mr. Marten in this field Septem¬ 
ber 29 were in the same condition, and evidence of success with 
this infection experiment is consequently incomplete. The report 
of the owner himself is somewhat discredited by the fact that at the 
date of Mr. Marten’s visit he confused cast skins of pupae with 
dead bugs. 
THE YEAR 1894. 
The history of chinch-bug injury in Illinois is substantially 
that of a succession of waves of increase which slowly rise to a 
highest po nt and then rapidly fall away to insignificance, the 
rise of the wave usually occupying from three to five years or 
more, and its recession commonly requiring only one or tw 7 o. Such 
a period of increase began here in 1890 and apparently reached 
its culmination in 1894, when it covered a large part of this State 
from the Ohio River to the northern tier of counties. It also 
extended beyond our borders into Missouri, Kansas, and southern 
Iowa. In Illinois it was most injurious this year (1) in the 
southern and south-central part of the State, (2) in the western- 
central counties, and (3) in a few counties near the northern 
boundary—being practically harmless, or nearly so, only in the 
eastern part of central and north-central Illinois. 
