142 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Genesee, in the state of New York, about thirty years ago, the 
midge and weevil were so destructive to that crop that they were 
compelled to abandon the raising of it. In a few years these 
wheat enemies were obliged to give up and say quit, for want of 
sustenance. They are now, and have been for years, raising num¬ 
ber one wheat in that section. They are saying to us “ Badgers,’^ 
that they would not like to live in a state that did not raise better 
wheat. Upon land from which I saw the timber cleared sixty 
years ago, they are now raising thirty bushels of extra wheat to 
the acre. Since the return of these bugs, after their exit in 1865, 
I have been testing my theory to some extent, and with much bet¬ 
ter success than I could have anticipated, when working single 
handed or alone. To be fully successful, there should be an organ¬ 
ized community working together. I have sometimes said, “ I 
thought it might be proper to have some legislation on the sub¬ 
ject,” as we have got in the habit, these latter years, of twisting 
the constitution some. The farm contains about 240 acres, and is. 
well situated for my experiment. It is bounded on the west by 
Rock river, by timber and pasture; on the north by a road, timber 
and pasture; on the east and south by a stock farm, where a por¬ 
tion all the time is more or less into grass. 
This has enabled me, most of the time to arrange my corn fields 
and a small piece of wheat, so that they will generally be surround¬ 
ed with grass and oats. In 1874 my neighbor had barley on the 
line opposite a piece of corn. The bugs came through the fence. 
I cut the corn, throwing it on the ground. They made a right an¬ 
gled turn into a piece of fall sown rye, and ate up a portion of it so 
close to the ground that it did not grow again. Neighbor number 
two had this season about four acres of v/heat on extra good 
ground, where barley grew last year, from which he harvested very 
little, it being used up by the enemy. About twelve rods from 
said field there was a small piece of corn in a garden. The space 
was covered with grass and trees, but it did not save said corn from 
their ravages. On a piece of seven acres of wheat in the center of 
the farm I did not see a bug. It had corn upon one side and grass 
on the other. I did not, this season, see a bug in my rye or oats, 
and have not, to my knowledge, except in the garden referred to, 
had a hill of corn injured by them. A tenant planted about thirty 
acres of corn upon some new breaking. On a portion that was not 
