The St. Johns herald., 1896-02-22
FIGHTING CHINCH BUGS.
Prairie Farmers Adopt Unique Tactics Against the Pests
old Grasshcpper Times Brought Forci- hly to Mind Again-The Trouble" some Insects Captured by
 the Bushel.


 some Insects Captured by
 the BusheL.
 ! The dry weather which succeeded tho carly rains has brought out the prairie farmers enemy. the chinch bug, in full force again. As the wheat has been cut, the bugs have gone into the corn fields, and in many sections of central Kansas are doing damage again. The schemes evolved by the settlers for the destruction of the tiny insects which are co harmful. says the St. Louis Globe Democrat, arc alike ingenious and effective-the only difficulty being the overwhelming numbers of the pests. When millions on millions in- fest every square rod, there is little hope for efcctual cxtcrm:nation.
 The farmers arc, among other things, reviving the plans of the old grasshop- per days, and are using coal oil or kcro- sene with more or less success. The scheme includes long trench, reach ing across the edge of the field which jt is proposed to protect. At intervals are sunlsen cans, covered by cone shaped piles of dirt with hole at the top. The bugs follow the trench and pour in a stream into the cans. At the bottom of the cans is coal oil, which serves both to kill the creatures and make them inHammable. A torch touched to each produces mimic vol cano for time, but leaves the trap empty and ready for another collection of.bugs. One farmer in northern Kan sas piled up eight bushels of dead bugs in one day, and did not work hard either. This system can at best be but a temporary one to bridge over short spell of dry weather, as the expense is too great to allow of protecting any large territory.
 The larger portion of the farmers continue to have faith in the bacilh of Chancellor Shows discovery. and thou sands of boxes of bugs arc being sent to the state university to exchange for infected insects that may spread dis ease and dea tn among the fields. Some counties have established stations, in charge of experienced men, at cost of s60 to s100 month, to propagate the disease and furnish the bugs to the farmers at home.
 During the past few months 5000 packages of infection have been sent out to tho individual farmers of Kan sas, Missouri and Oklahoma. In addi- tion, fifty auxiliary distributing sta- tions were established in Kansas and Missouri, thirty-cight in Kansas and twelve in Missouri. The demand for infection from southern Kansas has materially decreased recently, which is sad to be the result of the disappear ancc of bugs in the sections where in lection was used extensively soon after its discovery. In 1893 there were 1,S0S applications from individual farm CTS and last year only 194, figure not likely to be exceeded this season. The northeastern coun ties also show fall ing of from ,l23 to 462, while the cen tral and western counties keep up theii demands. The fifty substations sup piled an average of 800 farmers, giving a total of 15,000, with 5000 more iron the central station, or 10000 altogether About 5000 made written reports o1 last years work and 55 per cent. were favorable, showing an immense saving to crops by the use of the infection.
 4 field near the laboratory gave tho station an opportunity to gather 7,OO( boxes of sporotrichum as a reserve stock for early distribution for use 1T the wheat fields this spring and sum iner. Most of these came into centra' Kansas and did good work. Experi ments made last fall in injecting chincf bugs with artificial culture of sporo tichum showed equal results with tho ordinary method of injecting bugs, and it is a great advantage in supplying farmers early in the spring with tho necessary amount of infected bugs. Ex periments are being tried of spreading infection by the spraying of sproutipg spores, and if successful it is possible that infection may prove successful il dry weather. This has been the great est impediment to complete success il experiments up to the present time.
 The corn crop is one on which thu farmers place the most reliance, and i is at present in condition to promise magnificent yield. But if the bugs ar to be allowed to roam from the fields O wheat in to those of corn and lop of z half dozen or more rows on each side it means tremendous loss in the az gregate. The little creatures worl with an srmy-like regularity and ac complish devastation as extensive a it is serious. The fight to save tn fields is important as we'll as interesting
 Great People Shrink.
 What a fortunate thing 1t is tha great people are apt to shrink on close acquaintance. A New York lady, liy ing in modest way, was almost ap