The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1895-05-02
THE FESTIVE BUG.

THE FESTIVE BUG.
Prof. Lugger Continues His Treat
ise on ChinCh BUGS.
Another point in the life history Of
these bugs is their love for warmth
and dryness, and consequently thei,
selection of fields offering both
Chinch- bugs prefer sandy soil or poor
ly cultivated soil simply because in
such fields the plants are small and OF
irregular growth, thus permitting the
sun to strike the soil directly, it not
being shaded by foliage. Fields we'll
covered with plants, and consequently
soils we'll shaded, are not attractive to
these insects. A good farmer will not
utilize soils of the above characters,
but will enrich the sandy soil to such
an extent as to produce a strong and
uniform stand of plants; nor will he
cultivate poorly good soil; neither
will he be robber of the soil by con-
tinuing to remove crops year after
year without returning something to
the soil in form of manure to keep up
its fertility. A good farmer will es-
cape many losses by insects and other
pests where poor farmer would suf-
fer. Good farming, and clean farm
ing, should be the motto over every
farmers door. Poor farming means
also a rank growth, of weeds, and
mainly of the different species of
pigeon grasses, which in themselves
are great attraction for chinch-bugs.
Another point in the favor of good
farmer, or of one who feeds the soil
generously, is return of the thankful
soil in the form of vigorous plants;
plants which can withstand the attacks
of injurious insects better than the
weak plants growing upon a starved.
soil.
AS long as it is the aim of the farm
or to grow upon tho biggest scale
possible only one kind of crop, just
that long noxious insects will be num-
erous, or even increase still more in
numbers. The reason for this is so
self-evident that it is not even neces-
sary to explain. If more diversified
farming was the rule and not the ex-
ception, as it is at present, fields con-
tanning the same kinds of plants
would be more widely separated by
fields containing other kinds of plants,
and insects would not find it so con-
venient to multiply without let or
hindrance. Such fields of cereals,
separated by other fields containing
other crops, would soon reduce the
numbers of many insects, and among
them those of the chinch-bugs. Of
course, this would mean, perhaps,
more work, but it would also mean
less trouble and betterfreturns for The
labor expended.
When we consider the method in
which the bugs of the first brood mi
CRATE from the dry plants first infested
to the future green corn in cornfields,
we are struck with the fact that near
ly all bugs, whether large or small,
migrate on foot, and that even the
great majority of the winged ones do
not form an exception by using their
wings. Of course, under certain con-
ditions small percentage take to
their wings; but this is the exception
and not the rule. Armies of insects
migrating on foot, and moving slowly
and in the same direction, should
offer us many opportunities to oppose
or to stop them entirely. This very
fact of migrating on is the weak point
in the life history of the chinch-bug,
where we can, with little foresight,
overcome them. Many different
methods may be adapted, depending
mainly upon the character Of the
ground over which the insects have to
pass. In our own State the agricult
ural soils are usually quite free of
rocks and stones, excepting localities
where they abound, but where, in
consequence, but little grain is grown.
By making between grain and corn
field ditch several feet in depth, i'm
mense numbers of bugs can be cap
tured and killed, in fact, nearly all
that travel on foot. But in dry sum-
mers such bitches will have sides COM
posed of baked and hard soil, and
would offer but slight hindrance to