Wichita eagle., 1889-12-19

and quite a number of town present. The
association was called to order by Mayor
Clement who said he had hoped more
farmers would be present, but those or
hand could enjoy the feast all the more
and those absent could read many of the
interesting papers. He referred to the i'm.
portance of the association and its work
and thought the tact was becoming ap.
preciated and in due time It's importance
would be recognized by all.
Mr.. A. G. Forney, of Belle PLANE, vice
president, was called to the chair in the
absence Of President Winters, of Kiowa
He presented Prof. Snow of the state
university.
PROF. SNOW ON THE CHINCH BUG.
The chinch bug has been termed the
arch enemy of the western farmer. A
very moderate estimate of the average
amount of damage inflicted upon Kansas
agriculture by this apparently lnsignlfi-
cant insect in each of the years 1856, 1887
and 1888 would be at least 20 per cent OF
the entire crops Of corn, wheat, oats and
millet. This is equivalent to the annihi-
lation of cereal products Of the value of at
least fifteen millions of dollars in each of
the three seasons mentioned, inficting an
annual tax of ten dollars upon each man,
woman and child in the state
The practical question which arises, in
view of these facts, relates TO the POSSIBLE
ity of preventing at least some consider
able portion of these immense losses. Da.
LeBaron, formerly Illinois state entom-
ologist, was of opinion that no remedy
could ever be discovered by which the raw
ages of the chinch bug could be materially
checked. A more reasonable view, JuSti-
fed by recent investigations, IS of a far
more hopeful character. Many preventive
and destructive measures have been sug-
gested, of which the most important seems
TO be the destruction of the bugs in their
winter quarters by burning them, winter
quarters,and all. After the first autumn
frosts the bugs take refuge for the winter
under vegetable rubbish of all kinds, corn
stalks leaves dead weeds and the wild
prairie grass fox-tail, etc. in and around
the cultivated fields of the preceding sea-
son. BY concerted action all farmers
should destroy by fire all such vegetable
refuse before the bugs leave it in the
spring The chinch bug is at least two
brooded, and each female surviving the
winter lays at least 500 eggs. If 200 of the
young matching from these eggs are fe-
males, the progeny of each female allowed
to survive the winter would num-
Der 100000 in the second brood.
Hence the Importance of destroying the
ALTERNATING bugs. The burning of the
stubble should be accomplished not later
when the bugs are leaving a wheat field
after harvest for the neighboring corn
fields, the latter may be protected from
invasion by blowing deep furrow around
the field, with its perpendicular side
towards the corn field, and keeping the
soil in the furrow finely pulverized by
daily dragging a log in the furrow. The
,,b; 80 III ic hot ho I'm
cannot climb up the loose surface, espe-
cIally on the perpendicular side. The
dragging each morning will kill many. but
they should be either trapped or destroyed
IN pits, or burned by strewing straw each
morning on the invading side of the fur
row and burning the same each evening.
(See Riley).
After briefly treating of these standard
methods of protection Prof. Snow devoted
the principal portion of his paper to an
account of experiments conducted by him
during the past season for the artificial
communication of a contagious disease
among chinch bugs. Such disease had for
some time been known to attack the bugs,
often spreading in natural way from
fisld to field and county to county, over a
considerable extent of territory, sometimes
including entire sta ties, and even two or
three adjacent states. But up to the pres
ent time no successful method had been
devised for the artificial communication of
these diseases from an infected district
to an unaffected district. There was always
some DOUBT whether in supposed cases of
artificial introduction of the disease the
maladv had not really been propagated in
the natural way. An unexpected oppor-
tunitv was offered last summer for testing
this question upon larger scale than had
previously been possible. The last week
of June Professor Snow received letter
from DR. J. T. Curtiss, of Morris county,
conveying the gratifying intelligence that
a disease had broken out among he chinch
bugs and that the ground in many places
in fields of oats and wheat Was white with
the dead bugs. DR.. Curtiss stated that on
June % he saw the first sick bugs and III a
few days dead ones. From this date to
June 80 the disease destroyed the bugs in
most Of the fields. Where the oats or
wheat were heavy. shading the ground
thoroughly, all the bugs died. Where the
crop was thin on the ground many bugs
escaped the disease. The doctor was at
once requested to forward samples of the
sick and dead bugs for examination and
experiment. He did so and the disease
proved to be what Professor Snow has
termed the white fungus" although the
scientific names are of law-breaking
ntomophthora" and EN-
pusa."
A considerable number of healthy
bugs were mixed with the infect
ed material received from Morris county
and IN "A few days the disease was commu-
nicated to the fresh subjects and it was
evident that the disease could be success
fully propagated in the laboratory. Just
at this time an enterprlSIng newspaper
reporter for the Lawrence Tribune APP
peared on the scene and wrote brief ac-
count of the appearance of contagious
disease among the chinch bugs of Douglas
county, and stated positively that the dis
ease could be started in any field by
scattering few dead bugs, wLich could
be obtained by sending to Prof Snow. In
q few days the professor received large
numbers of letters from no less than nine
different states begging for diseased and
deceased bugs" The opportunity then
afforded by the rather previous" reporter
was not allowed to 60 unimproved, and
during July and August sick and dead
bugs were sent to agricultural experiment
stations and farmers in Kansas, Iowa,
Nebraska, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois,
Michigan. Minnesota and Missouri. The
following letter of instructions accom-
panied each package of bugs:
Dear Sir-Having just obtained limited
supply of diseased chinch bugs, / enclose
small box of them for YOUR use, on condi-
tion of your making careful trial OF them
and reporting TO ME the result
Please observe the following directions:
Nir tIsse bugs with ten or 3twEnsy, times
as many beaithy bugs, and keep them to
gether for Sc or rs hours Then turn them
loose iboth dead and living ones on the
field selected for the experiment Watch
closely for the result. A similar lot sent
to Ottawa county, Kansas, two weeks ago
and distributed according TO the above
directions, soon communicated the disease
to that region The bugs began TO die in
five days after the injected material had
been planted"
Please make q careful record of your
proceedings and report 10 me. as ! am