The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1880-07-15
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A PeStiferOus Pest.

Every reader of the FARMER AND Me
rHANIC has attended picnic at one time
Or another and every picnicker, male or
emale, has been bled by that plague take-i,
title carniverite, the Chinch for ye chinch
S no respecter of persons, and would as lief
pursue his meat meath the drapery of a
Iaced pantaloonette, as pair of Lindsey
Woolsey breeches. 1t is doubtful, how~
ever if most persons are aware that the
woods chinch has brother or first cousin
whose deviltry costs this nation more than
qgeaty millions Of dollars every year. Prof
Riley estimates the destruction of corn and
wheat by the chinch bug in the two States
IF Missouri and Illinois at $50, ZOO, 600 for
he single year of 1874 and puts the total
oss for that year at upwards of one hun
red millions
,eems to be extending his family and his ex-
penSes may be expected to increase unless
We can devise some way to demolish him.
Let our farmers set themselves to study the
habts, and best methods of exterminating
he little varmint.
Dr. Fitch IN his second report on the NoX-
ous insects of New York, saws
1T was just at the close of our Revou-
tionary struggle, or about the year 1888,
hat this bug was first noticed as depreda-
tor upon wheat. in the interior Of North
Carolina 1t was at first supposed to be
IDENTICAL with the Hessian fly, which at this
timcwas making such destruction in wheat
crops on Long Island and in New Jersey
Two years before this the British Army, ac
companied by detachment of its German
suxiliaries, had marched through North
Carolina, and the battle of Guilford was
ought Mr. J. W. Jeffreys states that an
aged and highly respected citizen of Orange
County, North Carolina, Informed him that
il was Immediately after this event that
the Hessian fly or Hessan bug destroyed
their crops of wheat and they believed and
10 believe to this day QS39) that those sol
IierS left the flies or bugs as they passed
trough the country The insects contin-
led to increase and spread through the Car
otnas and Virginia for several years. In
LIS5 the fields of North Carolina were so
0verrun with them as to threaten total de-
'ruction of the grain (Webster on Pestil
+nce, vol. i, p, 279). And at length the
crops were so destroyed in some districts
hat they were obliged to wholly abandon
he sowing of wheat 1t was four or five
Iears that they continued so numerous at
his time
About the year 1S49, we are inform ed
y Mr. Jeffreys that the chinch-bug again
}ecame SO destructive in North Carolina
nat IN Orange County the farmers had to
'fandon the sowing of wheat for two years.
Ind according to his statement the insects
we're subdued thereby. At various other
'meS, of which we have no record, it has
'1doubtedly been abundant in that and the
M]acent States. that section Of country APP
e&rlngto be its headquarters.
In 1889. we have accounts of its having
gam become excessively numerous and de-
Nructlve in Virginia and the Carolinas
lhe bug had now become SO numerous
q Carolina and Virginia that with it's con-
nued increase in 1910, the total destruc-
ION OF their crops appeared inevitable. The
respect was SO alarming that Sidney Wei
Ff' OF Brinkleyville, Halifax County, North
alollna, and Others in his neighborhood,
'll'ed IN the spring of 1910 in pledging a
alasome sum as prize for some feasible
~eIhod to arrest the career Of this depreda-
W: But at this juncture Providence in
aIefred tc accomplish what no human
57ucy could have effected. Instead of be-
< ufy, like the two or three proceeding
.s'fS the summer of 1910 proved to he of
"a opposite character, and the ravages of
.!l yIls insect were at once suppressed.
n.t Il was about this period that the chinch
Tss Tuis began to be noticed along the upper
i .fIMs1sSlPpi and through the northern parts
,,nu. nlhois. 1t made its appearance there
Fo FnoSnltaneoualy n with the establishment of
msn no Mormons at Nauvoo US40-l844), and
4 y ignorant people firmly believ-
ney were introduced there by these
anu auge reiigionists, and Mormon lice be-
ie de. !he name by which they were current
D. PSi9nated through that District
Na,a ,'Il III Professor Riley's seventh report as
Hhtomologrst of Missouri. we learn