and Prof. Thomas those of Illinois at $30,000,000. From these and other data, Prof. Thomas computes the average annual loss they occasion the country at not less than $20,000,000.

DESCRIPTION." The chinch-bug is a small insect less than onefourth of an inch long, its length usually not exceeding threetwentieths of an inch; its width something less than one-half its length; rounded on the under side and flat above; of a coal-black color, with white wings which have a triangular, black dot on their outer margins. It belongs to the order hemiptera and suborder heteroptera, to which group also belong the common bedbug, squash-bug and other similar true bugs. This species like all the rest belonging to the order, has the mouth prolonged into a slender, horny, jointed beak, usually turned under the breast when not in use. With this instrument and the slender needlelike setæ inclosed within it, they puncture the bark, leaves and stems of plants, and suck out their juices. It is in this way the chinch-bug obtains its food. As it has no means of gnawing plants, and is so diminutive in size, it would seem to be incapable of inflicting any very serious injury on vegetation; but as heretofore stated, what it lacks in individual capacity for inflicting injury is made up by the immense numbers which are occasionally developed. A myriad of tiny pumps incessantly drawing away the juices of a plant must in a short time cause it to decay and die."

The egg is at first of a pale dull whitish or testaceous color, but at length assumes a reddish color, from the changes transpiring within; the embryo can be seen as a red speck in the center through the transparent shell. When first hatched, the young bug is red, with a white stripe across it; afterwards it turns of a brownish or grayish-brown color. Soon after it is hatched, it inserts its tiny beak into the plant on which it is situated and commences pumping out the juices on which the vigor and life of the plant depend. As their growth is rapid, their moults are frequent; before reaching the perfect or winged state, it passes through four of these changes, varying in color and markings after each. According to Mr. Riley's observation, "it is bright red, with a pale band across the middle of the body after the first; somewhat darker, with the merest rudiments of wing-pads after the second;

and quite brown, with distinct wing-pads, but with the pale transverse band still visible after the third." The entire process requires from five to seven weeks; according to Dr. Shimer's observations, from the time the egg is deposited until the imago appears is usually from fifty-seven to sixty days.

The accompanying cuts are taken from Prof. Riley's report on this insect, and are also used in the governmental report of Prof. Thomas, mentioned before. Figure 5 represents the full-grown larva, magnified. The natural size is represented by the line at the side. In figure 6, a and b are magnified views of the eggs, the small figures at the side denoting their natural size; c, the young larva, when first hatched; d, the tarsus of the same; e, the larva after the first moult; f, after the second moult. The pupa is represented by g; h is the leg, magnified; i, the beak, with which the sap is drawn out of the plants, and j, the tarsus of the matured bug.

For a long time it was the general opinion that there were three or more broods a year, but careful observation has established the fact that there are but two. The adults of the fall brood, on the approach of cold weather, seek shelter, generally near at hand, under shocks of corn, straw piles, logs, fences or other rubbish in and around the field. Sometimes, though but seldom, they fly to the thick timber and take refuge on the ground under the leaves. They have been found in large numbers in such winter quarters in woods far from the cultivated fields. In these places they pass the winter in a torpid, or semi-torpid, state. Where sheltered

from sudden changes they can endure the cold with safety, even a number of degrees below zero. They have been found frozen in the solid ice, and on being thawed out became as active as ever. When not well sheltered a temperature of -12° or -15° generally proves fatal to them.

The time at which they make their first appearance in the spring depends somewhat on the latitude and character of the season. Hot, dry weather is very favorable to them and hastens their development; and on the other hand, wet and cool weather retards them and even keeps them back till late in the season. Their first appearance, usually made in May, but occasionally in April, seldom attracts attention, unless a special outlook is kept up, as they are comparatively few in number, small in size and are mainly on the wing at this time. Often the first that is known of their presence is when the second brood is hatching out in great numbers, and the work of destruction is well under way.

In a very few days after leaving their winter quarters, the females commence to deposit their eggs, laying them not in large clusters and all at one time, as is done by many of the insect foes, but a few at a time, and during a period of two or three weeks. It is to this fact that their destructiveness is largely due, for it insures their perpetuation in large numbers. In the egg and early larval stages, they are very tender, and much exposed to injury. A severe storm, or even a very heavy shower, often destroys them by myriads at this time, and if the eggs were all deposited at once, the whole brood would occasionally be nearly annihilated in this way. It is generally believed that the vitality of the females is much greater than the males, and that the great majority of those that survive the winter and the exposure of the breeding season, are females.

If the soil is loose and dry, and the weather warm and clear, the female usually works her way down to the roots of the plant and there deposits her eggs. When the soil is heavy or wet, and the weather is unfavorable, the eggs are laid on the stalk, near or even above the surface of the ground. Bright sunshine, a dry, sandy soil and hot weather are the most favorable conditions to their development; and where these conditions obtain early in the season, it

insures such an early, rapid and prolific development that nothing can withstand them. On the other hand, when the weather is cloudy and wet, and the soil heavy and filled with moisture, they propagate but slowly, and are sometimes kept back so that they do not become numerous enough to do any harm until the early grain is out of the way. Then, should the weather become favorable, they fall heavily upon the corn and oats. The effect that the season has upon them is clearly seen in the fact that, notwithstanding the wonderful rapidity with which they propagate, each female reproducing her kind five hundred times, they seldom get numbers sufficient to do much harm except where two very dry seasons come together, and then the amount of harm done is proportionate to the heat and dryness of the seasons.

Spring wheat and barley are the cereals best adapted to their wants, and which suffer most from their attacks; in fact it is thought by many, that were it not for these two varieties of grain the bugs would not develop in such numbers, or have sufficient vitality to do much harm. It is true that they will thrive on oats and corn, but they will only feed upon them after the wheat and barley are gone and there is nothing else to devour. The most natural place and time for them to propagate is on the wheat and barley; when these are gone the egg depositing season is nearly over and the insects have attained their greatest numbers. It is at this time that they are often seen marching in compact masses great and little in search of new fields to devour.

REMEDIES. Many plans have been tried by which to destroy or at least so to reduce the numbers of this pest as to prevent the wholesale destruction they occasion, but none of them have proved very effectual. Notwithstanding their weakness, insignificance in size and power, they have carried the day by sheer force of numbers, and it is very doubtful whether the power or wisdom of inan will ever be able to exterminate this insignificant, and yet mighty foe. The most one can hope to do is to keep down their numbers and thus lessen their power to injure. Nature, aside from the storms and climatic conditions mentioned, will not afford much aid. Their natural enemies are very few and limited in numbers; a few of the Lady Birds and Lace-wing Fly, are

the main ones, and they seem to have but little appetite for the work, but in their greatest force, they are not able to make any impression on the horde of the destroyers. Of parasites there are none. There is apparently not an insect parasite so vile, so depraved in taste as to prey on it or on its first cousin, the bed bug.

Among the remedies proposed is to stop sowing and planting the grains on which they feed. Objections have been raised to this method, that it would compel us to stop raising all the most essential grains needed to support life, and that, too, for a number of years, which would well nigh occasion a famine, and that it is better to have little than none at all. But this objection is not altogether sound, for in many sections of the country winter wheat could be raised, and this is seldom injured by the bug. Then, as remarked before, it is very doubtful whether they would develop in sufficient numbers to seriously injure the other grains were it not for the more timely and better adapted cereals, spring wheat and barley. Neither would it be necessary to follow this practice for a number of seasons to receive any benefit. To the careful observer they always give some token of the coming danger. It is a well established fact that it is only in the second of two consecutive dry seasons that much damage is done, and if, when they are seen in larger numbers than usual at the close of one dry season, we sow no wheat and barley the next, we would escape the greater portion of the loss that would otherwise follow; and by raising other crops might dispense even with corn and oats on such seasons without great inconvenience, and to the great disgust of the hateful pest. If this course, even so far as the two first cereals are concerned, were generally followed, an effectual check, at least for a number of years, would doubtless result. But to be largely beneficial, concurrent action by farmers generally would be required.

Another plan recommended is early seeding. This practice, it is true, has not in all instances been effectual, and will occasionally fail to secure exemption from loss, but the chances, or rather the probabilities, are in its favor. By all means sow as early as the ground and weather will permit with any hope of the germ.