4 THE CHINCH-BUG IN 1896. 
would be wrong, however, to claim that farmers alone ‘did 
not take time by the forelock; we all are apt to neglect pre- 
cautions, and later have to suffer the consequences. 
The climatic conditions of the season of 1896 were such 
that the chinch-bug disease worked to the satisfaction of 
all who tried it conscientiously, and if it had been more gen- 
erally employed in all infested counties, a chinch-bug plague 
could have been prevented for a great number of years, as 
most of the few found in our fields could have been killed. 
Soon after the abundant spring rains had ceased, and 
the soil had become dry and warm, a continuous southern 
wind set in, and this wind brought with it large numbers of 
chinch-bugs. In some cases it actually ‘‘rained”’ chinch- 
bugs, and in this manner many localities became again in- 
fested. With normal weather the first generation of these 
insects could not, however, become numerous enough to 
cause any serious losses to the small grains. A circular sent 
out at this time awoke many farmers to the fact that 
spores of the chinch-bug disease could be had free of charge, 
mailed to their post-office, simply for the asking; and num- 
erous boxes were mailed in consequence. Where the con- 
tents of these boxes were used according to the directions 
and thoroughly applied, success followed; at least many let- 
ters received at that time so stated, and it was too bad that 
many more farmers did not at least try this remedy. Of 
course those that expected success by simply putting a 
pinch of such spores here and there in their fields did not 
succeed, nor did they deserve to do so. No one can expect 
success who does not diligently and intelligently work for 
it! As long as there was a fair amount of moisture in the 
soil, just so long the introduction of disease-spores proved 
a success; but as soon as our dry summer commenced the 
disease spread only in exceptional cases, and so slowly as to 
do but little good. The continuous dry weather assisted 
the chinch-bugs very materially, though they caused but 
very little injury to the small grains, with the exception of a 
few localities especially favorable to these sun-and-heat-lov- 
ing insects. In some places the corn was invaded and suf- 
fered more or less. As the autumn of 1896 was also a re- 
