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have played havoc with the cotton; none have escaped, and we cannot expect 
over half as much as last year, and it will all open by the 15th of October. 
Troup county, Georgia.—The rains, together with the devastation of the 
caterpillars, have nearly destroyed the cotton crop for this county. One-half 
will be a very safe calculation. 
Baldwin county, Georgia —The cotton crop has been very severely injured 
during the past month by the caterpillar; whole fields of young bolls destroyed 
in a week’s time, so that the last crop is cut off. I have farmed here for thirty 
years, and have never seen such destruction in this county. 
Hail county, Georgia—Cotton is being very much injured by worms. 
Tatnal county, Georgia.—Since wy last report of the condition of the cotton 
crop, a disastrous change has occurred. The caterpillar has made its appear- 
ance, and its ravages are unprecedented; the entire crop on many plautations 
has been swept away. : 
Morgan county, Georgia.—The cotton crop will be exceedingly short. The 
army-worm is making sad havoe in all parts of the country, stripping off the 
blooms, squares, and unmatured bolls. The corn crop is also very short. These 
failures are having a tendency to make our farmers turn their attention to other 
things, which in this mild, genial climate is a thing very much to be desired. 
We want a complete system of mixed farming, and the plantations reduced so 
that they will not average over 300 acres. 
Heard county, Georgia.—-The crops in our county will be short, especially 
cotton, the worms having destroyed all the late crop; they are doing more injury 
than I have ever known in this part of the State. 
Taylor county, Georgia.——Since my last report the cotton crop has been 
seriously injured in every part of the county. Not a single farm has escaped 
the ravages of the caterpillars. They made their appearance about the 5th of 
September, and in a very few days they were seen in every cotton patch in the 
county. They are not of that species of worm that travel from one farm to 
another, but each farm seems to have produced its own stock. When first seen 
they were very small, and in five days they were full grown. When full grown 
they are about one and one-fourth inch in length and about the size of an oat 
straw in diameter. They appeared in sufficient quantities in most places to 
strip the cotton stalks of all the leaves, forms, and small bolls within five or six 
days from their first appearance. 
After these caterpillars have attained their growth they web up and fasten 
themselves to the limb of the cotton stalk. In afew days a hard shell encloses 
them and turns back, and within a few days more, say six or eight, they hatch 
out a small butterfly, a little lighter than lead-color. They resemble, very 
much, what is known with us as the candle-fly. At this time there are in all 
the cotton fields in this section millions of these butterflies. 
In many instances these caterpillars made their appearance in such numbers 
that a cotton field would be stripped of its leaves in the short space of two days. 
They then attacked the bolls, destroying all that were not well-nigh matured, by 
eating off the hull that encased the cotton. The result is that our crops of cotton 
are materially shortened and the cotton is opening very rapidly. The leaves 
having all been destroyed the sun has full power on the bolls, which hastens 
them to maturity, and the leaves being destroyed the stalk is fast drying up, 
which will cause the cotton to open prematurely. It is safe to state that, if 
the weather continues favorable for gathering, the entire crop will be gathered 
by the last of October, and in market soon thereafter. 
[The worm referred to is the cotton caterpillar, Axomis Xyline—T. G.] 
Crawford county, Georgia.—The decrease, in this report, of cotton has been 
occasioned by rain, which caused the plant to throw off its forms, and by the 
attack of the caterpillar and boll-worm, whose combined devastation is unpre- 
cedented in this county. 
