REPORT UPON THE COTTON-WORM, BOLL-WORM, AND OTHER 
INSECTS. 
By JUDGE LAWRENCE C. JOHNSON. 
HOLLY SPRINGS, MIss., 
October 10, 1882. 
Sir: Commencing July 1 to make diligent inquiry, by voluntary 
newspaper articles and otherwise, concerning insects injurious to cotton 
and other crops, I found, this season, the northern belt unusually free 
from our insect enemies. The first complaints, and the only ones heard 
this month, were from the gardens. In these the European Pieris had 
made an early appearance, the striped Diabrotica had made cucumbers 
and melons impossible, and Strachia histrionica had never left them from 
the fall preceding. These pests are mentioned because only on them 
could I try poisons at that time. 
My first experiments, to prepare an emulsion of kerosene, were only 
partially successful—I should say failures. Application of my imper- 
fect emulsion to cabbages was the nearest to success. It effectually 
killed the worms whenever sufficiently applied from a small sprinkler, 
and did not kill the cabbages, nor always injure them. But every 
effort to help the squashes, cucumbers, and melons killed the plants or 
failed to scare the Diabrotiea. The emulsion was mainly applied to the 
earth around the plants. The beetles would come out of the loose 
ground and fly away, but would be found-again on the plants. They 
were specially destructive to candytufts on a border. The earth of the 
whole bed being very loose, they could easily shift their hiding places. 
Pyrethrum powder was most successful against these, but it had to be 
renewed frequently and of a greater strength than for caterpillars, one 
to ten of flour being found about right, blown on by a small bellows 
offered in market for the purpose—that is, the drug stores which sell 
the powder generally ‘have the bellows also. 
The most obstinate pests were the Harlequin bugs (Strachia). If 
pyrethrum ever killed them, I never found it out. Though the tincture 
applied to cabbage-heads seemed to sicken them and drive them out 
awhile, I never got it strong enough, or it was too volatile to be effectual. 
Kerosene emulsion will kill these bugs if it can be applied to the 
abdominal portion of their bodies. But there is the trouble. A mere 
wetting of the leaves, which can generally only reach the upper surface 
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