35 
,o my inquiry on this point* were received from Northern Illinois, 
)f which 30 were affirmative (77 per cent.); 54 from the Central 
)art of the State, of which 40 were affirmative (74 per cent.); and 
117 from Southern Illinois, 105 affirmative (90 per cent.). 
EXPERIMENTS. 
Fertilization .—The fact that the chinch-bug attack affects most 
seriously the vegetation of the poorest soils, that crops on rich 
and will often escape damage while those on poor land adjoining 
t may be completely destroyed, is well enough known from com- 
non observation. Not unfrequently different areas in the same 
ield will illustrate this difference in unmistakable terms, especially 
f some parts of the field receive the “wash” from others. The lack, 
lowever, of precise evidence respecting the degree of benefit to be 
lerived in an infested region from the use of fertilizers as a sup¬ 
port to the crop against chinch-bug attack, led me to undertake, 
n 1887, a field experiment. Through the kindness of Samuel 
Bartley, Esq., of Edgewood, Effingham county (who gave the 
natter his personal care throughout the season), I was enabled to 
o make this test on a small field of his wheat. 
This plot, after plowing in fall, had received a top dressing of 
nanure taken from stock yard, stable, hog-pen, and poultry house, 
he ground never having been fertilized before. On the 3d 
>f May I found an extraordinary number of adult chinch bugs in 
his wheat, just beginning to lay their eggs. So overwhelming 
ng was their attack that Mr. Bartley compared the noise of their 
light, as they entered the grain, to that of a swarm of bees. 
Bven at this early season the wheat was seriously affected, the 
ffants reddened and dwarfed in patches, and the growth dimin- 
shed, as I estimated, about one third. On a measured part of this 
)lot, commercial fertilizers were sown at the rate of one hundred 
)ounds each per acre of nitrate of soda, superphosphates, and sul- 
)hate of potash. The wheat from both parts of the field was har- 
r ested and threshed by hand, kept carefully separate, measured, 
md weighed, the general result being that for the portion ferti- 
ized with barn-yard manure alone, the yield, notwithstanding the 
snormous attack by the chinch bugs and their continuance 
hroughout the season, amounted to 20.8 bushels per acre of wheat 
hat weighed 54 pounds to the bushel; while that treated with 
ommercial fertilizers in addition, yielded at the rate of 24 bushels 
>er acre of grain weighing 62 pounds to the bushel. The result 
*f this experiment was especially noteworthy, as 15 bushels per 
ere is considered in that region a good average crop. On another 
ield of badly worn land less than half a mile from our experi¬ 
mental plot, (the only other wheat in the neighborhood,) a simi- 
ar application of the commercial fertilizers, produced a marked 
approvement in the beginning of the season, in size and color of 
he plant, but later the whole succumbed to the chinch-bug. 
