135 
No. 76 This is the second of the three exceptional cases of 
•spontaneous muscardine, referred to above. It appeared on the 
farm of Mr. Silas Hurd, about one and a half miles north of 
Odin, in the corn field marked A, Plate IV. This field of forty- 
nine acres was planted early and grew rapidly for a time, but then 
came practically to a stand on account of incessant chinch-bug 
attack and the drought which prevailed throughout that region 
during the latter part of the summer. 
The corn was cut and shocked while yet in roasting ears, early 
in September, in order to save the fodder, and the field was deeply 
harrowed and planted to wheat. No Sporotrichum had been dis¬ 
tributed in this field at any time; but unsuccessful attempts to in¬ 
fect fields had been made, as described under Nos. 74 and 75, on 
the Robinson and Silver farms at distances of a little more than 
a quarter of a mile away. (See B, C, and I), Plate IV.) 
Mr. Johnson examined this field October 6, and found the white 
fungus quite abundant in all the shocks. One hundred and fifty- 
two dead chinch-bugs imbedded in it were collected in a few 
minutes from a single shock at a , and every shock examined in 
the southern and western parts of the field contained fuugus- 
covered bugs in considerable numbers. At b, in the northeastern 
part, it was an easy task to collect several hundred whitened 
bodies in and under every shock. This part of the field was quite 
low, and chinch-bugs, mostly adults and pupse, had accumulated 
in the shocks in enormous numbers. This was perhaps due to the 
fact that all green vegetation in the field had been destroyed by 
the harrow and cultivator, and that the bugs were obliged to 
congregate in the shocks or to leave the field iu search of other 
food. i 
Only an occasional fungus covered insect was found in a field 
of sweet corn (F) which had been completely ruined by chinch- 
bugs, and which was not cut at all. Adults and pupae were still 
present there, but not very abundant. Bugs were seen in small 
numbers in all the grass lands surrounding the corn (A); but no 
traces of the fungous disease were found, with the exception of 
three or four dead insects taken from grass in the meadow next 
the road east of A. A few others imbedded in Sporotrichum were 
found in corn (B), as noted in experiment 74, and several were 
taken from grass in the meadow west of corn field E, as stated in 
No. 75. 
The fact that this fungous disease was almost totally absent in 
fields surrounding A, would seem to indicate that it must have 
been fostered in the latter field by especially favorable conditions. 
These seem to have been (1) the early catting and shocking of 
the corn while it was still green; (2) the destruction of all food 
throughout the open field, such as grasses of various kinds and 
the green stubble itself, by harrowing and cultivating; (3) the 
consequent concentration of the chinch-bug hordes in the shocks; 
(4) the heavy rains which fell about September 16 and 17, wettiog 
the shocks and thoroughly drenching the chinch-bugs; and (5) the 
retention of the chinch-bugs in the shocks at a time when their 
