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 OF ILLINOIS 
 
 
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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, 
 
 Agricultural Experiment Station 
 
 CHAMPAIGN, JUNE 9, 1894. 
 
 BULLETIN NO. 33. 
 
 CONTENTS. THE CHINCH BUG IN ILLINOIS, 1894.. 
 
 ALKALINE TABLETS FOR TESTING THE 
 
 ACIDITY OF CREAM. 
 CERTIFIED TESTS OF DAIRY COWS. 
 
 THE CHINCH BUG IN SOUTHERN ILLINOIS 1894. 
 
 In bulletin No. 19 of this Experiment Station, published in Feb- 
 ruary, 1892, notice was given of the commencement of an extensive 
 outbreak of the chinch bug in southern Illinois, with warning of its 
 probable development in the following year. Acccording to our ad- 
 vices at that time, eight counties in the southern and south-central part 
 of the state were injuriously infested, and eighteen other counties in the 
 same region were mentioned in which the chinch bug was reported as 
 of general occurrence in unusual numbers. 
 
 This attack increased in intensity during 1893, and this spring (1894) 
 the chinch bugs emerged from their winter quarters in numbers sufficient 
 to do great mischief in no less than twenty-four counties throughout the 
 region above mentioned. The area seriously infested is practically the 
 same as that to which attention was called in 1892, the counties now in- 
 volved being Williamson, Jefferson, Perry, Washington, Clinton, Madi- 
 son, Bond, Marion, Fayette, Clay, Richland, Jasper, Effingham, Cum- 
 berland, Montgomery, Macoupin, Scott, Morgan, Sangamon, Christian, 
 Pike, Brown, Cass, and Henderson. 
 
 Economic measures now available are practically limited to experi- 
 ments for the destruction of the chinch bugs in place by the introduction 
 
 397 
 
398 BULLETIN NO. 33. [ June, 
 
 of their contagious diseases, and to the interposition of barriers between 
 small grain and corn to prevent their passage from one to the other as 
 infested fields of small grain ripen or are destroyed. To accumulate 
 and kill them as they pass from field to field, a deep furrow may be 
 plowed, to be kept clean and as friable as possible, especially on the 
 vertical side, next the field to be protected, and in this the accumulat- 
 ing bugs may be killed by a mixture of kerosene and water (about one 
 part to eight), thoroughly and repeatedly shaken together. A variation 
 of this method, used very successfully in Wisconsin, is to lay a quantity 
 of green wheat or oats or fresh corn stalks in the furrow, in which the 
 chinch bugs can be killed with this kerosene mixture as they accumu- 
 late. 
 
 An added measure of success with the barrier method may be 
 secured if two parallel furrows are made instead of one, and the soil 
 between them be kept dusty. The chinch bugs escaping the kerosene 
 mixture, or other destructive agent, in the outer furrow could then be 
 killed in the second. If they succeed in passing these barriers and col- 
 lect upon the outer rows of corn, they may there be killed with kerosene, 
 which should then be applied in the form of an emulsion to prevent in- 
 jury to the young corn itself. To prepare this fluid, mix two parts of 
 kerosene with one part of strong hot soap-suds, and violently agitate 
 the mixture with a hand force-pump until a permanent cream or butter 
 is formed. This may then be diluted with ten or twelve parts of 
 water, and applied either with a sprinkler, or in a spray from a hand 
 force-pump. 
 
 A more expensive and less readily manageable method is the plant- 
 ing of strips of some favorite food plant, as spring wheat, or other 
 quick growing succulent cereal or grass, around infested wheat or 
 around corn to be protected, where the chinch bugs may accumulate and 
 be destroyed before laying their eggs for the second generation of the 
 year. The bugs may be confined to the strip, after having entered it, 
 by furrows plowed all around it and attended to from day to day until 
 the destruction is complete. 
 
 For the benefit of those who wish to experiment with the intro- 
 duction of contagious diseases, arrangements have been made to infect 
 and distribute live chinch bugs to farmers, the funds for this experiment 
 having been furnished by the Board of Direction of the State Agricul- 
 tural Experiment Station. Those wishing such material should send to 
 the undersigned, with the least possible delay, a collection of some 
 thousands of live insects, enclosed with a little green vegetation (wheat, 
 oats, or corn) and no dirt, in a tin box large enough to hold from a 
 pint to a quart. Upon receipt of these they will be exposed to infec- 
 tion by confining them in a tight box with a large quantity of dead and 
 dying chinch bugs, and returned without charge to the senders, with full 
 directions for use. 
 
 The results of this method are, however, not sufficiently certain to 
 
 
 
1894-] ALKALINE TABLETS FOR TKSTINCJ TIIK ACIDITY OK CRKAM. 399 
 
 warrant an entire dependence upon it; and it should be made one feature 
 only of a general and concerted campaign. I cannot too strongly insist 
 upon the fact, emphasized by eleven years' experience with the chinch 
 bug, that it is not to be mastered by any one measure or any one man, 
 but that joint action on an intelligent programme of preventive and 
 protective measures persistently followed up, offers the only valid hope 
 of success. 
 
 S. A. FORBES, PH. D., State Entomologist. 
 
 ALKALINE TABLETS FOR TESTING THE ACIDITY 
 OF CREAM. 
 
 Since the first description of these tablets was published in bulletin 
 No. 32, Professor Morrow, of this station, has made a valuable sugges- 
 tion which has been adopted in the use of the tablets for testing the sour- 
 ness of the cream. He suggested that substitution of one graduated 
 bottle for the three or four separate bottles in which the tablets are dis- 
 solved in water. This is found to be an improvement, as it not only 
 decreases the necessary manipulations, but enables the operator to meas- 
 ure a smaller amount of acidity in cream than is represented by one 
 tablet. A 50 c. c. glass cylinder, graduated, and on a foot, is found 
 to be a convenient piece of apparatus to use in preparing the solution 
 of the tablets. It is made of stout glass, not easily broken, and can 
 be obtained of any dealer in chemical apparatus. Put five tablets 
 into this cylinder, add hot or cold soft water, until the cylinder is filled 
 up to the 50 mark, then cork the cylinder and shake frequently until 
 the tablets all disappear in solution. When the tablets are all dissolved, 
 the reddish colored liquid can be poured into the 25 c. c. of cream which 
 is to be tested, until the cream is no longer white, but retains a pinkish 
 color. This is the end of the test. The amount of the tablet solution 
 which was used to produce this color in the cream, is thus measured by 
 noting the number of tablets which were dissolved in the 50 c. c. of 
 water and the number of c. c. of this solution it was necessary to use to 
 neutralize the acid of the cream. 
 
 COMPOSITION OF THE TABLETS. 
 
 The tablets are made of sodium carbonate and phenolphthalein. 
 The writer proposed the idea of mixing these two substances in the 
 form of a tablet to a manufacturing chemist and requested him to make 
 a trial of it. It was found by repeated trials and experiments of the 
 manufacturer and the writer, that tablets could be made so that each one 
 would contain a very exact amount of sodium carbonate, and there could 
 
 VV VSUl 
 
400 BULLETIN NO. 33. [ June, 1894. 
 
 be mixed with it a sufficient quantity of phenolphthalein to give a pink 
 color to 25 c. c. of milk or cream, when the latter was made alkaline by 
 the sodium carbonate. 
 
 The mixing of these substances and molding into tablets, requires 
 the skill and machinery of a manufacturing chemist. 
 
 Their usefulness depends in a large measure on the exactness with 
 which they are made. E. H. FARRINGTON, M. S., Chemist. 
 
 CERTIFIED TESTS OF DAIRY COWS. 
 
 The Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station will supervise tests 
 of dairy herds and, in exceptional cases, of individual cows owned or 
 exhibited in Illinois under the following conditions: 
 
 The number of tests so- supervised, and the times at which they 
 shall be made, will be determined by the practicability of sending an 
 authorized representative for the purpose without serious interference 
 with other work of the station, but it is expected that there can be 
 prompt compliance with all requests. 
 
 Preference will be given to tests of pure bred herds or cows kept 
 for the ^rearing of dairy stock, and to tests continuing seven days. 
 
 The Station, through its representative, shall receive full informa- 
 tion as to breeding, age, time of calving, date when bred, and treatment 
 of the cows prior to the tests; also have full opportunity to determine the 
 quantity and kinds of food used, and the methods of feeding and treat- 
 ment during the tests, with privilege of taking samples of the food for 
 inspection or analysis, as well as the quantity and quality of the milk or 
 butter product. 
 
 The results of the tests, duly certified by the Station, will be furnished 
 as soon as determined to the owners of the cows, or to the associations 
 under whose auspices the tests are made. The Station shall have the 
 right to make publication of the results obtained, but no publication will 
 be made without consent of owners or associations until after the com- 
 pletion of any public competition in which the cows have been entered. 
 
 The expenses of the representative of the Station in going to and 
 returning from the tests as well as his maintenance during the tests shall 
 be paid by the owners of the cows or the associations authorizing the 
 tests. 
 
 Blanks giving the details of observations to be made in the tests will 
 be sent on application to AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTAL STATION, 
 Champaign, 111. G. E. MORROW, A. M., 
 
 President Board of Direction. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA