Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 145 
were spared through the winter, I said the country was well sup¬ 
plied with seed; it don’t matter what the seed is, whether eggs or 
whole bugs. In reference to the bugs living in winter among the 
corn-stalks, we must be allowed to make observations somewhat 
for ourselves. 
Last fall I was engaged in plowing while the men were engaged 
in husking, and I turned under the stalks so clean that no one 
could tell whether it was corn-ground or not, and the bugs had 
come from the barley-field and crept in, and I turned them under 
as long as I was not prevented from plowing by the final freezing 
up, and there was no rain, and they were just as handsomely housed 
in there as anything in the world. And the bugs in the spring 
commenced coming out right where I had turned under those 
stalks, and a good many of my neighbors went with me and exam¬ 
ined that piece of ground. It seemed so strange at first, I didn’t 
know why the bugs were so bad in that particular sx>ot. My spring 
wheat averaged me 18 bushels to the acre all but that piece where 
the bugs were so bad; but the bugs were certainly wintered in the 
corn-stalks. 
Mr. Benton - . I have not had much experience with the chinch- 
bugs, but my observation is that their operations are greatly ex¬ 
tended in rough, loose soil; that is all they have ever operated on 
my land. So I am inclined to think we are getting at the general 
principles involved. Probably there was a good deal of organic 
matter in it, and I know positively that land can be so hard, chincli- 
bugs won’t hatch in it, and I have got some of it too. 
Mr. Porter. I wish to enquire of the professor from the Uni¬ 
versity whether he knows anything about salt having any influence 
on the chinch bugs, or any merits salt would have as a preventa¬ 
tive against their ravages. 
Professor Daniells. I do not know anything about it. But 
salt in any ordinary soil would strengthen the growth of grain a 
good deal, but whether it affects bugs or not I don’t know. But I 
want to ask or suggest one thing. It was suggested to me last 
fall that chinch-bugs would not pass through grass 4 or 5 rods in 
width, and if that is so, it seems to me that is a thing which every 
farmer ought to know. And it is well worth while if they do not 
know, to find out, because if a man can keep them out of his field 
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