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nearly overwhelmed—as were also the local express offices and the 
post-office—by packages of chinch-bugs arriving from all parts of 
the State, and in all imaginable conditions. 
Notwithstanding the great enlargement of our facilities, and the 
continuous expert attention which the whole subject received, es¬ 
pecially from Mr. John Marten, who has had principal charge of 
our disease experiments for four years, the contagion did not 
spread rapidly enough in our boxes to make it possible to meet 
at once more than a small percentage of the demand. I found 
later that a part of this slow' development was due to a difficulty 
which serins not to have been previously noticed by any one here 
or elsewhere; namely, the appearance in our contagion boxes of 
swarms of minute mites which fed upon the fungus as fast as it 
was developed. 
Next, observing that large numbers of the thirteen-year locust 
(Cicada iredecim), a brood of which was rapidly disappearing, 
had died with this disease, and bore a profuse growth of the 
characteristic muscardine fungus in excellent condition, I had a 
large quantity of them collected, and used these dead locusts for 
distribution, accompanied in each case by chinch-bugs which had 
been previously exposed to the infection. 
Finally, having ascertained that the cultivated fungus grown 
upon a mixture of corn meal and beef broth was apparently as 
effective for the destruction of chinch-bugs as that obtained from 
the insects themselves, I had a large quantity grown artificially 
on this material, and used this also for distribution. 
By these methods I succeeded, by about the 20th of July, in 
supplying all who had sent requests up to the 10th of that month 
—a little over two thousand for the season. As I had issued a 
second bulletin June 30, giving notice that it would be impossible 
to continue the distribution beyond July 10, I considered the ob¬ 
ligations I had assumed thus fulfilled, and this work was brought 
practically to an end. 
Each lot of chinch-bugs, living and dead, was accompanied by 
the following circular of directions for their utilization, and of 
caution against hasty observation and inference: 
“Dear Sir: I send you by this mail chinch-bugs which have been 
successfully exposed to the white fungus disease of that insect, and are 
in a condition to convey it to others. 
“To propagate this disease in your field, make a tight shallow wooden 
box, say 24x36x6 inches, and place in it a layer of dirt half an inch deep, 
free from leaves or other rubbish. Moisten this dirt without making it 
muddy, and then put in a thin layer of green wheat or corn. Scatter 
the dead chinch-bugs sent you over the bottom of the box, and shut up 
with them a quantity of live bugs from the field—as many as can well 
move about in the box without being anywhere more than one layer deep. 
Fasten the cover down tight, so that nothing can escape, and set the 
box where it will be protected from sun and wind. A celhir or a base¬ 
ment room is to be preferred. 
“Open the box daily and moisten its sides and contents (without mak¬ 
ing them muddy) when they begin to get dry, and also change the food 
as that in the box becomes yellow. When it is seen that the white, 
moldy bugs are becoming more numerous, probably in about three or 
four days, take a part of the bugs, dead and alive, out of the box, putting 
in fresh live ones to take their places, and close the box as before. 
