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the richest portions of tlie southwestern cotton belt the planters culti- 

 vated in former years extremely tall and rank varieties of cotton bear- 

 ing few seeds, but producing a long fiber; to-day, where cotton seed is 

 worth from $9 to $15 per to.n, they cultivate much smaller varieties, 

 with short fiber, but producing plenty of seeds. The fields in the 

 bottom lands look to day quite difterently from what they did fourteen 

 years ago. They are much more open, and one can readily walk or 

 drive through them in all directions; in short, tliey do not longer offer 

 the same favorable conditions for the earlier broods of the cotton worm 

 as in former years. 



Above all, there is one thing that nioire than anything else has 

 deprived the cotton worm of its dread and power of destruction which 

 in former years accompanied its apparently mysterious appearance. 

 Only a little over twenty years have elapsed since the time when a few 

 individual farmers commenced in a feeble way a rational warfare 

 against the cotton worm, and even as late as 1879 many farmers 

 despaired of ever being able to successfully cope with the worms. At 

 that time, one generation after another of the worms was allowed to 

 develop unmolested, and the poison only applied when it was too late, 

 or almost too late, to save the crop. Today there is everywhere a 

 greater watchfulness for the first appearance of the worms and a 

 much greater readiness in applying the proper remedies. In short, on 

 my trip through the South, in 1894, I was extremely gratified to find 

 that this feeling of helplessness had entirely died out, and that through- 

 out the cotton belt, wherever I stopped to make inquiries, the farmers 

 uniforndy and emphatically expressed the utmost confidence in their 

 ability to fight the worms. "We regard the cotton- worm question as 

 solved." These were the words with which a prominent planter in the 

 Brazos River bottom, near Bryan, Tex., greeted me; and I heard these 

 welcome words at many other places in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, 

 and Alabama. 



The remedies relied upon for the destruction of the worms are still 

 the old ones, viz, Paris green and London purple, all other forms of 

 arsenical mixtures, i^atented or not patented, having disappeared. 

 But Paris green is immensely more in favor than London purple; in 

 fact, during my whole trip [ struck only one locality (the Brazos bot- 

 tom land at Bryan and Hearne, Tex.) where the latter is extensively 

 and successfully used. The reasons for this preference are not difficult 

 to i^oint out. Paris green was the first poison successfully used by the 

 planters and has never given any reason for complaint; even a strong 

 overdose, such as is likely to occur with the present mode of applica- 

 tion, never does any harm to the plant, and a very minute quantity is 

 equally effective. Moreover, the strongest point which, in former 

 years, was urged in favor of London purple, viz, its cheaper price, has 

 considerably lost in importance since Paris green is now sold at 15 

 cents per pound, whereas London purple is now at from 7 cents to 8 



