St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1889-06-22
FIGHTING cHiNcH.0UoS

FIGHTING cHlNcH.8UoS
How . Mlnnea0to Farmer 0oeooo0o4 -
saving Ms Cora CropA
At the meeting Of the Red Wing
(Niinn.) Farmers' Club Mr.. E Brown.
Of Waconta, gave the following account
Of how he trapped the chinch-bugs and
saved his corn. Mr.. Browns field Of
corn lay for fifty rods side BY side with
field Of barley belonging TO l. J.
Boynt0u. He had observed that the
bug was very abundant in the barley.
and he made up his mind to try osave
his corn and kill the bugs. and also
how to do it. There was about fifteen
feet between the corn and barley. and
he plowed and narrowed . strip next
his corn and strung along some fence
boards which he had secured. ready 70
set up whenever the army. having hn-
ished the barley. should have TO move
on. One afternoon he saw they he'd
begun to come over . strip some rods
wide. He at once set up hts
fence boards. but It soon ap.
peared that old boards. having nail
holes. shakes and cracks would
not answer. and he took instead some
new-sawed ten-foot stun. clear and
sound. and with that made his fence.
He set each one about two inches into
the ground. 20 It would stand up. made
a straight cut ut the end Of each board
and scribed the next to IL 80 as TO make
close joints everywhere. Then with .
brush and q pail OF kerosene he wen,
along brushing lightly the top Of everJ
board with the oil.
Chinch-bugs abhor kerosene. and the
Ill does not in fact agree with them
They could not get over this new fence
with the kerosene streak on top. But
they could travel along 1t and 60 round
the end. To prevent that Mr.. Brown
got jars and crooks, holding say two
gallons or more, and sunk them along
outside OF his fence. one every five,
six or eight rods. the top OF the jar
five or six inches below the top OF the
ground and the earth round it all
smOothed to slope to the edge OF the
Jar. and the surface covered with per-
fectly dry fine earth or dry ashes.
sloping as steep as they would
lie. In q two-gallon jar he put
about two quarts Of water and some
drops OF kerosene on the top OF the
water. From the top Of the boards.
kerosoned as aforesaid. he drew . mar.
row line of kerosene each side Of the
jar. slOping toward each other. and
coming to the bottom Of the board
where the ashes. or dry dirt sloped to
the jar. So far Brown. He leaves
the barley. crawls over the few feet
between that and the board with the
oiled edge. scrambles up the board.
finds the oil and moves along to the
right or left little below the edge OF
the board until he comes TO the line
drawn in kerosene from top to bottom,
turns down the board to the lower
edge and gets OF, falls OF. or Is pushed
OF by the next on the ashes, or dust,
and then rolls and tumbles down into
the water. The touch Of kerosene kills
him almost instantly, and he sinks TO
the bottom and leaves the space for
the next. A small boy goes over
the edge OF the boards with the
brush wet with kerosene; .
firmer hand with . dipper. dips the
dead bugs out Of the jars and puts on
little more kerosene, and all Of them
stand and enjoy the easy death they
have devised for the enemy. Tho edge
of the fence must not become free Of
the odor OF kerosene; two or three
brushings daily will answer. It took
about twenty gallons Of oil to save Mr..
Browns corn. and he absolutely saved
it; not an ear was hurt by the chinch-
bug. He followed the game for three
weeks, and the season was over. The
millions OF bugs that had hatched and
grown in BoyntOn's barley. and eaten
it up, had all moved out been guided
to the crooks Of doom. killed, dipped
out and buried. They were dead and
gone. The black lines OF bugs moving
along near the upper edge Of the boards
and down to the jars from both ways
could be seen after eleven o'clock until
evening for ten rods distance. but at
length they were all caught Mr.
Brown thinks his corn would have beer
ruined for eight or ten rods into the
field, Two and . half or three acres