34 
from my own observation of the chinch bngs to lead me to be¬ 
lieve that yon will escape them by giving up winter wheat as a 
crop. Certainly they have been fearfully destructive in the north¬ 
ern part of the State at times when winter wheat was not at all 
raised there, laying their eggs freely in spring wheat,, barley, etc., 
and the fact that I personally know them to deposit their eggs 
abundantly in spring in oats and corn, and to breed there appar¬ 
ently no less freely than in wheat, makes it very unlikely that 
they are limited to any [one] of the small grains as a means of 
support to the first brood.” 
Next, in a circular concerning the chinch bug in Illinois, issued 
September 10, 1886, page 5, I said: 
“The leading remedial and preventive measures are as follows:— 
“1. The abandonment of small grain for a year in regions where 
corn is the principal crop, in the hope that the bugs of the firs! 
brood will thus be starved out. Where this experiment is tried 
it will be necessary for a fair chance of success that no small 
grain be sowed (since, as already said, the bugs will breed in 
oats); that the planting of corn be postponed as late as practi¬ 
cable, else the bugs will surely breed in that with very destruc¬ 
tive effect; and that no millet or Hungarian grass, be sown early 
enough to afford food and breeding places to the hibernating brood 
after they emerge from their winter retreats.” 
Finally, on page 35 of Bulletin 2 of the entomological office, 
issued in 1887, I have mentioned under the head of Agricultural 
Methods, “the temporary abandonment, in corn districts, of small 
grain, especially wheat and barley. This measure of defence, ir 
use for more than a century, is the one most generally relied 
upon. Its at least partial efficacy is now clearly demonstrated 
throughout a large part of this State where the chinch bug it 
making its advent almost wholly by way of fields of wheat and 
barley. It is to be noted, however, that when the number of this 
insect has risen to great excess, it can not be reduced again bj 
simply refraining from the culture of wheat and barley. It has 
been repeatedly shown in Southern Illinois, during the last twc 
years, that under such circumstances the bugs will breed as freely 
and successfully in oats as in other grains; while recent occur¬ 
rences in New York prove that the meadow grasses afford then 
almost equal opportunity.” On page 42 of the same bulletin, a* 
a special procedure recommended for Northern and Western Illi¬ 
nois, where the chinch bug was only beginning to attract atten 
tion, I mention the abandonment of wheat, rye, barley, Hun 
garian, and millet for the coming year, or, if grown, the sowing o: 
timothy and clover with the wheat. 
My township correspondents, while not unanimous, were usually 
of the opinion that chinch bugs were most abundant in neighbor 
hoods where wheat was grown,—more generally so in the southern 
part of the State than in the other sections. Thirty-nine replies 
