Convention—CJ liNcn bugs. 
141 
food to sustain life, the lowest as well as the highest. Man has his 
particular kinds, animals have theirs. 
If man is confined where he can get only wood, he soon perishes; 
but the same wood feeds the borer. The manufacturer of silk feeds 
the worms on mulberry leaves, but if he only puts oak or other 
leaves before them they die. The lion wants meat, and the beasts 
of the field grass. 
Now, then, if the chinch bugs are our enemies, why keep putting 
into the ground, year after year, seed that makes just such food as 
they subsist upon, viz., barley and wheat? Previous to about 1865, 
I often remarked that I thought these bugs destroyed as much as 
was left to support the family and keep the stock; the latter con¬ 
sisting of 400 sheep, with other stock in cattle, horses and hogs. 
About the time referred to (1865) these bugs, in this vicinity, 
disappeared, and for some time w^e enjoyed their absence. Gradu¬ 
ally they returned, and this year have done immense damage. My 
theory, in short, is to stop raising barley and spring wheat. Bar¬ 
ley appears to be a number one food for them, and in the absence of 
that, wheat is taken as a substitute. Winter grain is generally too 
early for them. Oats have never been injured by them, except 
when mixed with wheat. I would apply the same rule to any other 
crop that might be taken by them as a substitute. When we have 
become entirely rid of them as a community, sow again the wheat 
and barley, so that we can eat our own flour and drink our own 
lager. After striking from the list of products to be grown on our 
farms, barley and spring wheat, we can have just so much more 
space to put in grass, corn, oats, buckwheat, or anything else we 
may choose to substitute, and I would here suggest that we farmers 
experiment a little carefully on raising a small amount of winter 
wdieat, taking ground well protected against wdnds, and giving it a 
good summer fallowing according to the Genesee country plan, in 
w’estern New York, which is to plow two or three times during the 
summer, and sow last of August or first of September. 
In support of my theory, I will call attention to some facts. 
About forty years ago, the Hessian fly injured the wheat crop in 
some of the New England states, so much that they ceased to try 
to raise it, and imported their flour. In a few years that pest was 
starved out, and they raised their own bread again; that is, those 
who had suitable grounds. In the great winter-wheat region called 
