40 
observer who comes to the following conclusion: “As to burning 
stalks with a view to destroying the chinch bugs I have but little 
faith in it. Could the stalks be burned before excessive cold 
weather sets in, very probably a large portion of the bugs could 
be destroyed; but by the time the corn can be harvested and the 
stalks are dry enough to burn, the chinch bugs have taken to 
their legs or wings and left for parts unknown.” (5) Abstaining 
from the cultivation of those grains upon which they chiefly sub¬ 
sist. He thinks that bugs will probably not breed in oats to any 
extent after the first year of their infesting it [since disproven], 
and that abandonment of the cultivation of spring wheat and bar¬ 
ley, if there is concert of action over a considerable territory, will 
rid that section of the chinch bug. The presence of chinch bugs will 
not prevent the raising of corn or winter grains the coming year. 
Speaking of other proposed remedies he approves of burning badly 
infested grain just as bugs are about to migrate; says that the practice 
of sowing winter rye with spring wheat is founded on the mistaken 
notion that chinch bugs feed on the blades of grain; and regards 
all attempts to check their depredations by throwing offensive 
substances upon them as labor lost. Speaking of natural agencies 
which are destructive to these insects, he inclines to the view that 
they may be destroyed by the severity of winter as well as by the 
rains of summer. 
J[ohnson], B. F.—[Letters from Champaign County, Illinois, in 
Cultivator and Country Gentleman.] 
Apr. 25, 1872, v. 37, p. 261. “The chinch bugs have stood the 
winter, and are about by millions.” May 23, 1872, p. 325. “On 
May 5, chinch bugs were out by millions. Nothing will save the 
oats, spring grain, and corn crop, except a continuance of such 
cool and moist weather as we have had for a week.” Aug. 8, 1872, 
p. 501. “The chinch-bug damages this season are scarcely to be 
estimated, so limited are they.” 
[LeBaron, Wm. ]—Chinch-Bug Experiences of 1872. (Prairie Far¬ 
mer, Aug. 24, 1872.) 
Article deals- chiefly with the questions of the places of hiber¬ 
nation and climatic influences. Thinks fallen leaves constitute 
their “ordinary” or “normal ’ places of hibernation, and where no 
trees furnish^ these, “there is,” he says, “good reason to suppose 
that many of them fly to the nearest woodland in order to obtain 
their natural protection. As exceptional, mentions their being 
found under bark of logs and in worm-eaten nuts. Says that the 
chinch bug certainly hibernates in the woods to a sufficient extent 
to perpetuate the race, but whether in numbers to threaten crops 
the succeeding year has not been determined. Considering the ex¬ 
cessive prevalence of the chinch bug in 1871, and its “almost total 
disappearance” the next year in the belt of territory where its 
ravages were so serious, he does not think the fact can be ex¬ 
plained by the severe cold with which the winter opened, and the 
scarcity of snow, but is rather due to the timely rains in May 
