146 
Annual Report of the 
by plowing in the center of the field and leaving grass around the 
outside it is well to know it. 
A Stranger. That is another of the humbugs we have heard 
of. I saw them last summer pass right across a pasture and eat up 
every spear of barn grass on the field. You could see them eat 4 
or 5 rods a day. They passed across a 40 acre field of grass in a 
week and eat it all up. 
Ex-Governor Lewis. I happened in here for a moment to hear 
this discussion. I have had some experience and thought I would 
state it here. I found I could raise wheat upon clay land when I 
could not upon sandy soil. I found when chinch-bugs were 
plenty I could raise wheat on a not very light soil by rolling or 
packing, and for the last 2 or 3 years by sowing winter-wheat 
which ripens 2 or 3 weeks earlier. Last year the winter-wheat 
was 2 weeks earlier, and the spring-wheat right along side of it was 
entirely destroyed, while the winter-wheat went 30 bushels to the 
acre. This year I tried the same experiment and the spring-wheat 
was entirely destroyed, while the winter-wheat was 20 bushels per 
acre. I have tried salt. It is said chinch-bugs w r on’t work in the 
midst of salt very much. I tried this experiment last year. After 
sowing my wheat, a German on my farm said he wished to take 
half an acre and work it as they did in Germany. I told him to go 
ahead, and he did. He went into the field, and after the wheat 
was sowed and just commencing to sprout, he gave it a thorough 
top-dressing with manure, and that wheat came up and looked very 
nice, but when we came to harvest there was not a kernel of wheat 
in the patch, and I found that top-dressing just furnished a nice 
place for the bugs to hatch. 
Secretary Field. Was that the way they raised their wheat in 
Germany P 
Ex-Governor Lewis. That is the way he said they did in Ger¬ 
many. If the season is wet you won’t be troubled with them, but 
if the season is dry and you sow your wheat very early you will 
get ahead of them; and if you sow it on hard land you will gen¬ 
erally beat them, or if you sow it on good soil and pack it thorough¬ 
ly you will not be troubled much. 
Mr. Allen. I wish to talk about this salt question a little. 
Three years ago I made an experiment with salt upon wheat and 
the result was favorable. I tried this experiment. I mixed salt 
