Convention — Chinch hugs. 
143 
tilled, some bugs were seen among the husks. I was not certain 
whether they bred or Hew there. The former might have been the 
case, on account of the land not being cultivated. 
They like to sap the juice from green corn stalks, but I am well 
satisfied they do not, as a general rule, breed there. Either be¬ 
cause it is too late for them, or otherwise, the cultivation prevents 
the breedin 
• 
A neighbor, number three, raises corn largely, and barley a little 
less in acreage. His wheat was entirely used up last year, and in 
order to raise his bread this, he bought eighteen bushels and mixed 
with oats, which sowed a portion of his oat field. The bugs ate 
out all the wheat, and then ruined the oats as far as the wheat went, 
but the oats sown clear were not injured. So I am inclined to 
think they do not breed in oats, and that they are not natural food 
for them, but if it should so prove that they will take oats in the 
absence of other grain, I would strike them also from the list. This 
same number three neighbor told me a few days ago that he thought 
the bugs going from the barley ground into the corn had damaged 
it more than the barley was worth, it (the barley) being about 
twelve bushels to the acre, and poor. 
The crops upon my farm of about 240 acres, this year, are about 
as follows: Corn, 70 acres; oats, IG; wheat, 7; rye, 7; buckwheat, 
4; and the balance to meadow, pasture, timber, orcharding, stock 
and other yards, grounds for buildings, gardens, etc. I have culti¬ 
vated this farm thirty years, and never sown barley, and very little 
wheat, keeping it as'a stock farm, keeping what I raise. 
x\fter closing my statement of facts, and my theoretical ideas, a 
question might still arise, what shall we put upon our farms to pay 
hired help, taxes, and other current expenses? Will say more 
stock, more meadow and pasture, more corn, more oats, if they 
stand the test; more buckwheat, adding almost anything that does 
not feed and propogate the enemy. Turnips, millet, hungarian,. 
etc.,— watching closely, and striking from the list when found want¬ 
ing. We can raise a few potatoes by using Paris green. 
I have heard of stopping the ravages of the chinch bug by using 
coal tar, by making the ground hard and by making it soft. These 
operations for general good appear to me about like trying to dip 
a mill pond dry with a ladle, instead of tearing away the dam.' 
In conclusion, if my plan, or a similar one, could be adopted by 
