10 : 
empty the pole should be frequently and sharply struek with a short stick, or spaces 
in the rows will be missed. 
When used in this way we have found it the best plan to use the poison withoat 
any admixture of flour, and if flour is to be added lighter cloth should be used in 
making the sacks. 
With a pole and sacks as described, one man and mule can poison from 15 to 20 
acres per day. 
THE COTTON BOLLWORM. 
(Heliothis armiger Hiibn.) 
Unlike the cotton worm, this insect is by no means confined to Amer- 
ica, nor is it confined to cotton as a food plant. It is known in many 
other parts of the world, and it can not be surmised at the present time 
whether it has been carried from some one point or whether it is indig- 
enous over its extremely wide range. Its food plants vary in an extra- 
ordinary degree. In this country it is one of the principal enemies of 
cotton, of corn, and of the tomato. 
The cotton bollworm, the corn earworm, and the tomato fruit worm 
are all the same species. In addition to these crops, it feeds upon peas 
and beans, tobacco, pumpkin, squash, okra, and a number of garden 
flowering plants, such as cultivated geranium, gladiolus, mignonette, as 
well as a number of wild plants. 
GENERAL APPEARANCE, HABITS, AND LIFE HISTORY. 
The egg.—The egg is a little larger than that of the cotton worm and 
more nearly globular. It is nearly white in color but rather inclined to 
yellowish. Examined with a lens, its sculpturing seems to be almost 
identical with that of the cotton worm. The eggs are laid upon all 
parts of the cotton plant, occurring most abundantly on the under side 
of the leaf. A few can be found upon the stalks, many upon the upper 
surface of the leaves, some upon the involucre, and occasionally they are 
seen upon the stems of the boll or upon the petiole of the leaf. The eggs 
are laid just at twilight, and they hatch in from two days to a week. 
The larva.—When first hatched, the bollworm looks much like the 
cotton worm. Itis rather darker in color, but also walks like a looper, 
or measuring worm. It feeds at first near the eggshell, and then begins 
to wander away, crawling from one leaf to another, until a young bud 
or boll is found, into which it bores. Frequently several days pass in 
this search for a boll, and rarely the worm may reach full growth upon 
a diet of leaves. It is during this early, wandering, leaf-feeding exist- 
ence that the insect may be destroyed by arsenical poisons, as is true of 
the cotton worm. When the young worm enters the flower bud theinvo- 
lucre flares open and the young bud or young boli finally drops. This 
“shedding” of cotton is, however, not caused by the bollworm alone. 
Other insects are concerned in the damage, and the flaring and dropping 
occasionally occurs when no insect injury can be found. A very con- 
siderable amount of damage may be done in this way, as a single 
