The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1912-07-06
DESTROY CHINCH BUGS NOW
COLLEGE SENDS
OUT ANNUAL Wa RNING.
Prof. HeadIee Gives Ir-tructions for
Preventing Migration of the Pests
From the Wheat Fields to
the Young Corn.

Manhattan, Kan-Chinch bugs
will begin, within a few days,
their annual migration from wheat
fields to the corn. Enough bugs are
present in various parts of the state
to do very serious damage unless
measures are adopted to check their
progress. Experiments have proved
that these bugs can be destroyed dur
ing migration. A farmer can ordina-
riIy protect his crop regardless of the
inactivity of his neighbors. He can
compel the bugs to pass before they
are mature and he can destroy them
en- route.
If bugs do not pass before maturity
they will migrate on the wing, says
DR.. T. J. Headlee. head Of the bug de-
partment at the Kansas Agricultural
College. This cannot be prevented.
Fortunately this year the wheat is
likely to ripen before the bugs have
reached the development usual at that
time. The wheat, barley and oats
should be cut as soon as ripe. and the
grasses and weeds which might fur
nish food for the bugs, should be de-
stroyed by thorough disking. This
will compel the bugs to move. Before
the migration begins, preparations
should be made to kill the bugs.
These preparation consist of dry or
wet-weather barriers constructed be-
tween the infested and not infested
fields.
Essentially the first is a deep fur
row, the sides and bottom of which
are covered with an uninterrupted lay
er of deep, fine dust. In some cases
pair of parallel burrows are made by
dragging a double-trough boat back
and forth on a finely pulverized strip,
and in other cases a lister furrow is
plowed and the walls and sides re-
duced to deep, fine dust by dragging
a log back and forth.
Essentially the wet-weather barrier
is smooth surface on which a line of
coal tar about three-fourths of an inch
wide is laid down and maintained.
The type of smooth surface which,
all things considered. gives the best
results is a sharp back furrow having
| a shallow furrow in its crest. The
coal tar is poured along the bottom
Cf this shallow furrow and must be
kept liquid This barrier should be
Used only when there is no dust to
| hold the bugs. The bugs which fall
| into the dusty furrow should be burned
| with a strong gasoline torch. Those
which are turned back by the tar line
| should be trapped and destroyed in
post holes dug at twenty-feet intervals
along the infested field side of the
| III
crossing the barrier and gather on the
first few rows should be killed by
thoroughly spraying them with a solu-
ton composed of eight pounds of
| whale oil or laundry soap to fifty gal
Ions of water
For this fight the farmer should pro-
vide himself with plenty of coal tar,
road oil number 8, a strong gasoline
blast torch long enough to reach f.5m
| the hand to the furrOw bottom without
| STOPPING, and plenty of gasoline, a
knapsack or other efficient type OF
sprayer. and plenty of whale oil OF
laundry soap.
Here are directions for making
dry or wet-weather barriers against
chinch bugs. Dry-Weather barriers
A strip five or ten feet wide should
be broken with a pillow, the soil. fine
" pulverized with a harrow, and the
surface reduced to a dust by drag
ging a brush back and forth. Two
troughs, three or four feet long, are
made Of heavy lumber and held paral
lei and twelve inches apart by two
strong 2x4-inch pieces nailed firmly
across the top. This double trough
loaded with stone and ridden by the
driver, is dragged back and forth or
the pulverized strip until two deer
parallel burrows are formed, the sides
and bottoms of which are covered
with deep, fine dust These furrow:
can be renewed at will by re-drag
ging them
} In the other case a deep lister fur
row is plOwed between the infested
fields and the ones to be protected
The sides and bottom of this furrov
are reduced to fine, deep dust by re
peatedly dragging a log having abou
the diameter of the furrow back AM
forth. This furrow, also, can be re
newed by redragging. Post hole
must be dug in the barrier everv 2
feet or the bugs must be destroyed b,
: flaming with a gasoline torch.
: The first type of dusty furrow ban
r1er requires more time to make, bu
less attention after completion. Tn
post hole trap in the bottom of tn
barrier is less satisfactory than tn
, torch, because the post holes must b
: renewed every time the furrow is re
? dragged, which will be at least once
day. Detailed Instructions for all thi
work may be obtained by writin
Dr. T. J. Headlee, at the college.
Explains Magnificent Distances"
WHY do they call XEoeb;,-4.,. -