285 



necessarily be reduced, as it is the second and third generations which do the 

 principal damage to the crop. 



Some successful experiments in killing these moths with molasses and vinegar 

 were made by Captain Sorsby, which I will describe in his own words : 



" We nrocured eighteen common-sized dinner plates, into each of which we 

 put half a gill of vinegar and molasses, previously prepared in the proportion of 

 four parts of the former to one of the latter. These plates were set on small 

 stakes or poles driven into the ground in the cotten field, one to about each 

 three acres, and reaching a little above the cotton plant, with a six-inch square 

 board tacked on the top to receive the plate. These arrangements were made 

 in the evening soon after the flies had made their appearance; the next morning 

 we found eighteen to thirty-five moths to each plate. The experiment was 

 continued for five or six days, distributing the plates over the entire field ; each 

 day's success increasing, until the numbers were reduced to two or three moths 

 to each plate, when it was abandoned as being no longer worthy of the trouble. 

 The crop that year was but very little injured by the boll-worm. The flies 

 were caught in their eagerness to feed upon the mixture by alighting into it and 

 being unable to escape. They were probably attracted by the odor of the 

 preparation, the vinegar probably being an important agent in the matter. As 

 the flies feed only at night, the plates should be visited, late every evening, the 

 insects taken out, and the vessels replenished as circumstances may require. I 

 have tried the experiments with results equally satisfactory, and shall continue 

 it until a better one is adopted." 



As it appears that the moth is attracted by and feeds with avidity upon 

 molasses and vinegar, could not some tasteless and efi'ective poison be mixed 

 with this liquid, so that all the early moths which might partake of it would be 

 destroyed before depositing their eggs, somewhat in the same manner as has 

 been already practiced with great success in the destruction of the tobacco fly ? 

 Insectivorous birds also serve as very useful agents in the diminution of the 

 boll-worm and other insects, and should be protected. Iq. proof of this fact, I will 

 state that I have seen a king-bird, or bee-martin, chase and capture a boll-worm 

 moth not ten paces from where I stood, and which I was in pursuit of at the 

 same time ; also, that some young mocking-birds, kept in their nest near an 

 open window, were fed daily by their parents with insects, among which were 

 quantities of the boll-worm moth, as was proved by the ground underneath being 

 strewed with their dissevered wings. 



THE FLAX APPROPRIATION. 



The flax commission having been dissolved some months ago, the Commis- 

 sioner of Agriculture has transferred the balance of the appropriation, $10,500, 

 or more than half of the total sum originally placed in his hands, to the treasury 

 of the United States. In presenting an ofiicial notice of this fact to the Senate, 

 Senator Anthony used the following language : 



" It will be recollected that three years ago an appropriation of $20,000 was 

 made to test the practicability of cultivating and preparing hemp or flax as a sub- 

 stitute for cotton, under the direction of the Commissioner of Agriculture. 

 This fund has been administered by the Commissioner of Agriculture with 

 very great economy, and with very good results. Although the process of cot- 

 tonizing flax, or reducing flax to such a condition that it may be spun upon cot- 

 ton machinery, has not been attained, and, perhaps, from the nature of the fibre, 

 may never be attained — that is a question yet to be settled — very great im- 

 provements have been made in the use of flax. It has been applied to many dif- 

 ferent articles in which before it was unknown. In some it is equal to cotton. 



