103 
numbers in seventeen; and in numbers sufficient to threaten harm 
another year in twenty-five; wdiile from thirteen counties it is prac¬ 
tically absent. Life history briefly rehearsed and food plants 
given. The tendency, especially in the southern part of the State, 
to regard chincli-bug devastations as inevitable is noted, and some 
reasons for it given, among which are the following: (1) The 
number of worthless recommendations that have been made tend 
to discredit the whole subject of remedial measures. (2) There is 
.gnorance concerning the remedies which have here and there been 
tried with encouraging results. (3) Measures which have failed.under 
exceptional circumstances or because not thoroughly applied have 
been set aside as worthless. (4) The failure of individual efforts 
has discouraged people from concerted action. (5) Preventive 
measures have been brought into disrepute because these measures 
have failed when applied as a remedy. (6) Expedients that accom¬ 
plish much have been neglected because they did not do more. 
(7) Many promising measures still lack the endorsement of accu¬ 
rate, practical experiment. (8) There is a disposition to speculate 
on the weather and to count on its being unfavorable to the chinch 
bug. Under the three heads, agricultural methods, barriers against 
migration, and direct destruction, remedial and preventive meas¬ 
ures, to the number of thirty, are treated very fully, the standard 
methods being rehearsed, some others suggested, and old ones em¬ 
phasized by record of experiments. Winter wheat is said to afford 
every necessary opportunit} 7 for the multiplication of the chinch 
bug; and the temporary abandonment of corn in regions where 
small grains are the principal crop is mentioned as an expedient 
for forcing the midsummer brood to desert the fields and resort 
to w’oodlands for food. For those parts of the State not practi¬ 
cally mastered by the chinch bug a special procedure is recom¬ 
mended. 
Cook, A. J.—Insects Injurious to Grasses and Clovers. (Grasses 
of North America, v. 1, p. 408.) 
The chinch bug often does millions of dollars’ worth of damage 
in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas. It is more susceptible to 
•seasonal peculiarities—especially to w T et weather—than most in¬ 
sects. Gives short description of the stages and times of appear¬ 
ing. Two- or tliree-brooded. Neatness in farm operations, leaving 
no hiding places for them to winter in, is about the only remedy 
possible. Kerosene emulsion will kill them, but is hardly a prac¬ 
tical remedy. 
Statistical Report of the Illinois State Board of Agricult¬ 
ure for December, 1887. Circular 138, pp. 21-34. Corre¬ 
spondents’ Bern arks. 
Clark, Crawford, Hamilton, Pope , Richland, Saline, St. Clair, 
Union, Washington, and Williamson Co's. Corn much injured by 
drouth and chinch bugs. 
