214 
EXTRACTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE. 
LOCUSTS. 
Wilkesboro’, N. C—While writing I may as well tell you something about 
the locusts—the mysterious war-winged insects visiting us once only in seven- 
teen years, and then coming by stealth in the night time, and often “ holding 
high carnival” for forty days, falling exhausted in the fields and roadways, to 
be consumed by the hogs, birds, and ants. These noisy little strangers have 
made their appearance in a wide belt of country a few miles northwest of this 
town, extending far northeast and southwest, embracing the Blue Ridge and 
running with it, and being from thirty-five to forty miles broad; the western 
limit being near the foot of the Stone mountain. The “oldest inhabitant” states 
that this identical belt of country was visited by them, as now, in 1850, and 
not since, and it is a subject of remark, and excites our wonder that the line as 
drawn then is identically the same now. Hogs were the first to herald the ap- 
proach of the millions, and they have been the gainers by the discovery, as the 
delicate, sweet, fleshy morsels have kept the swine greasy enough for pork the 
whole time since frost came out of the ground. Hogs feed upon them to ad- 
vantage till they crawl up a tree or fence, where they split on the back and 
come out flies, after which the exhausting, dying process renders them innutri- 
tive, and some say pernicious. They are now well established in their leafy 
home, and a more disorderly, noisy assembly never congregated. Hunters say 
that deer and other timid game avoid the locust belt when it is in eruption. I 
am informed that beyond this belt for a considerable distance locusts have never 
been seen. Is it because of the proximity and contact with limestone ? 
THE COTTON AND BOLL WORM. 
Parish of Jefferson, La.—Allow me to call your attention to the destruction 
of the cotton crop by the worms, which appear to increase yearly. In 1864 I 
planted about one hundred acres in cotton. In July the worms made their ap 
pearance. Having no experience in raising this crop, I searched in the agri- 
cultural reports for information. Mr. Glover recommended the burning of trap 
lanterns, and I made three of them with a coal-oil lamp and tin basin, with 
soapsuds underneath, and burned them every night. The first night I caught 
about seventy-five millers and innumerable other insects. ‘The number in- 
creased to three hundred millers, and then gradually diminished to none. For 
‘three weeks after the crops of my neighbors were destroyed I found only a few 
of my plants attacked; about the last week of the three I caught no millers, 
but all at once the catch was seventy-five, next night one hundred and fifty, 
then three hundred, and even up to five hundred. The worm, however, grad- 
ually made its appearance more and more, until in the middle of August my 
cotton was stripped of every leaf and bloom. ‘lhe worm then turned in pupa. 
In ten days after this the miller again appeared. Meanwhile the cotton had 
sprouted again, and was in full bloom when the third brood made its appear- 
ance in immense numbers. In three days every leaf and young boll was eaten, 
and the worm was eating the bark of the plant and the glazed protection of the 
nearly-matured bolls. The heavy rains of September soaked into the bolls and 
rotted them. I made only three bales of cotton. In July the prospect was 
good for at least seventy-five bales. My opinion is that if every planter would 
commence burning a lantern in each five acres from tne latter part of June to 
the middle of September for a few years in succession both the boll and cot- 
ton worm would be destroyed. The boll worm destroys about one-half the crop 
with us. This year none of my neighbors raise cotton. I have planted about five 
acres, and shall burn one lamp and inform the department of the result. Cost of 
