20 The Bulletin. 



subdue it when favored by warm weather ; if so, frequent cultivation 

 close up to the plants will break open the soil so as to admit these 

 natural enemies under favorable conditions of warmth, and will at 

 the same time disturb the ants. 



Summary. — The Cotton Root-louse is identical with the Corn Root- 

 • louse of the Central States. It attacks the roots of cotton and 

 causes the plant to be of slow, late, stunted growth, or oftentimes it is 

 killed. It is known to infest corn in this State, and is also recorded 

 as attacking the roots of a number of other plants. The ants which 

 accompany it feed on the "honey-dew" which the lice secrete. This 

 louse seems most serious to cotton in our eastern counties, where 'the 

 prevailing soils are sandy, but it is most abundant on the stirrer por- 

 tions of the field. They are worse in cool seasons and usually disap- 

 pear when settled hot weather comes. 



REMEDIES. 



As cotton and corn seem to be the two chief food plants of this 

 Root-louse we may expect some measure of relief if we avoid planting 

 cotton in land that was in corn the previous year. One grower in 

 Sampson County mentions that where he grows cotton after corn he is 

 so much troubled by "Wood-louse" (by which we suppose he means 

 this same Root-louse) that he has adopted the practice of growing 

 cotton for two years in succession on the same land to avoid the 

 necessity of having cotton always follow corn. 



As pointed out in the letter of Mr. Philips, much can be done by 

 having the land well prepared and by cultivating frequently, and 

 if the land is well fertilized the injury will be even less severe 

 and will be more quickly outgrown by the plants. Cultivating as 

 soon as possible after a rain is mentioned by Mr. Philips, and has also 

 been demonstrated as effectual against the Corn Root-louse in Illinois. 



Possibly by planting later in the spring the plants would come 

 on when the weather is more settled and hot, and thus escape. Plant- 

 ing increased quantity of seed, or chopping to a thicker stand will 

 allow for a full stand even after the Root-louse has done its worst. 



If the ant which attends these Root-lice takes them into its col- 

 onies for the winter and brings them out and places them on new 

 plants in the spring, then the more of these ant colonics we can break 

 up and destroy the less of the Root-louse we will have. For this pur- 

 pose we must depend on a. very deep plowing of the soil, either in 

 preparing the land for the crop, or immediately after the injured 

 crop is gathered. Lands in corn and which it is intended to plant in 

 cotton the nex,t year could be very deeply plowed in the fall to destroy 

 the ant colonies and thus kill the lice. During the winter this could 

 grow some useful cover crop or legume, after which, with good prep- 

 aration for cotton, the Root-louse would be less likely to be destruc- 

 tive. The whole point of this dee]) plowing treatment, so far as this 

 louse is concerned, would be to break up the colonies of ants. 



