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INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE COTTON PLANT. 



The applications to this department for information in regard to insects and 

 diseases injurious to the cotton plant have made it necessary to devote a few 

 pages of our monthly report to that subject. Inquiries come from southern 

 planters as well as from northern men, who, totally unacquainted with the 

 business, are going, or have gone, south to engage in cotton-planting. 



In treating these subjects we shall employ plain and concise language, avoid- 

 ing, as far as possible, the use of scientific terms, so that what is said may be 

 intelligible to every farmer and planter. It is necessary that the farmer should 

 not only be able to recognize his insect foes, but that he should know something 

 of their history and habits, that he may the better devise means for their de- 

 struction, and understand whether, in the state of egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, or 

 perfect insect, they may most readily be discovered and extirpated. 



The first insect which attacks the young and tender cotton plant is the cut 

 worm. These worms are merely the first or transition state of a moth or mil 

 ler, [Agrotis,] the females of which deposit the eggs whence come the 

 myriads of cut-worms so injurious to almost all garden and field crops. The 

 most common example of this insect is that which destroys young cabbage 

 plants. 



The habits of cut- worms vary according to their species. Some excavate 

 holes in the earth near the plants on which they feed, and hide themselves there 

 during the heat of the day ; others merely conceal themselves under loose clods 

 of earth or stones, and come forth in the evening, or in dark, cloudy weather, to 

 feed upon the plants. Sometimes they cut off the plants and drag them into 

 their holes, where they may feed at leisure. They are never seen at their work 

 in bright, sunny weather, but at night, by the aid of a lantern, they may often 

 be found on the leaves or stalks and effectively destroyed. 



The cut-worm is a thick, naked, greasy- 

 looking caterpillar, from one and a half to 

 two inches in length, of a grayish or brown- 

 ish color, longitudinally striped with light 

 and dark markings. Some of them have 

 also a shining, horny, black spot on the top 

 of the first ring. After living some weeks in 

 the caterpillar form, and changing or casting 

 their skins several times, they bury in the 

 earth, where they assume the chrysalis state, 

 and become incapable of locomotion or feed- 

 ing. The shining, chestuut-brown cases, from three-quarters to an inch in 

 length, so often tui'ned up by the spade or plough, are merely cut-worms and 

 other caterpillars in the chrysalis state, and, if kept on moist earth, will change 

 into the moth. All these chrysalides should be destroyed, otherwise the moths 

 produced from them will deposit eggs for another generation of worms. Birds 

 are of the greatest utility in this case, as, following the plough, they devour the 

 grubs and caterpillars brought to the surface. 



In the summer months the chrysalides remain under ground but a short time. 

 The late broods retain their chrysalis state through the winter, and do not ap- 

 pear as moths till spring vegetation is fiir enough advanced to furnish food for 

 the young caterpillars. 



The cut-worm moths (Agrotis) measure from one to two inches across the ex- 

 panded wings. The ground color of the upper wings is ashy-brown or reddish- 

 gray, indistinctly crossed and shaded with two or more transverse darker 

 bands, or marbled with dark and light marks. The under wings are either 



