97 
ern Illinois has suffered for the last three years, have been de¬ 
livered first, each year, upon the fields of winter wheat, no spring 
grain but oats being raised in that entire region; and our recent 
observations in Northern Illinois, where winter wheat has lately 
been introduced again to some extent, show that there likewise 
this has suffered scarcely less, in several instances, than spring 
wheat beside it. It is probable, however, that where both varie¬ 
ties are raised, the spring wheat will usually be worst attacked; 
but certainly if only winter wheat is grown, this will afford every 
necessary opportunity for the multiplication of the chinch bug. 
4. The temporary abandonment of corn in regions tohere small 
grains are the principal crop. This expedient was suggested by 
observations made in the wheat regions of Washington county, 
where nature made for us, in 1886, an experiment on a large scale, 
showing the result of a lack of food for the midsummer brood of 
the chinch bug. The few corn fields in that region being early 
destroyed by insects and drouth, the breeding of the bugs was cut 
short in the corn, and the adults were forced to desert the fields 
in midsummer. Most of them consequently flew to the woods and 
lived principally, during the remainder of the season, upon certain 
woodland grasses. The number of the hibernating generation was 
thus cut down, and those surviving passed the winter almost 
wholly in the woodlands, with the consequence that fields at some 
distance from woods were nearly or quite free from attack the 
following spring. A general burning of the woods and thickets at 
the proper season, as recommended under another head, would 
probably have almost wholly protected this entire region. 
5. Culture of crops not affected by the chinch bug. The most 
important of these are clover, buckwheat, potatoes, turnips, and 
! the root crops generally ; flax, hemp, beans, castor beans, melons, 
i strawberries, and all the fruits. Oats and the common meadow 
grasses are usually less damaged than wheat, rye, barley, Hun¬ 
garian, and millet. 
6. Heavy fertilization, both of the ground before planting, and 
of the surface where the crop is attacked. This method takes 
effect both by supporting the plant under the drain of insect in¬ 
jury, and by causing a more luxuriant and thicker growth of 
vegetation, which shades the ground and renders it moist, thus 
supplying conditions unfavorable to the multiplication of the chinch 
bug. It is, by many, supposed that the bugs prefer an unthrifty 
vegetation to one in vigorous growth, but this is certainly not in¬ 
variably the case. Fields of corn, side by side, one fertilized and 
the other not, are often equally infested by this insect, the con- 
| spicuous difference in condition being due wholly to the greater 
resisting power of the stimulated plants. This practice has like¬ 
wise the advantage of forcing the development of the crop, thus 
pushing it out of the way of early injury. 
An experiment recently conducted for me by Mr. Samuel Bart¬ 
ley, of Edgewood, bears on the utility of this method. A plot of 
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