242 



fields have always suffered more than fields cultivated well and kept 

 clean. 



Food -PLANTS of the Moth. — Peas certainly occupy the first place 

 as food-plants of the moths, in fact, nearly all insects seem to be very 

 fond of them, ants, wasps, yellow jackets, etc. Therefore, whatever 

 means we desire to use for their destruction should be placed near 

 these, and, as stated above, corn will furnish the best trap that can be 

 used. A small patch near peas will attract them, and the number of 

 eggs laid upon them will prove a surprise to anyone who has not made 

 careful observations on this point, and many have suggested that the 

 corn would be injured in a corresponding measure as the number of 

 worms increased. This is not my experience, for their cannibalistic 

 habit serves as a check in this direction. 



Diseases. — During the season of 1880 a pale green, whitish-striped 

 worm infested my rice, and I feared would destroy it, but after a short 

 time they became diseased and the whole brood died out. During the 

 latter part of the summer of 1890 I found the Boll Worms dying in a 

 certain piece of late cotton. I watched the progress of the disease with 

 a great deal of interest and found that most of the worms died from it. 

 (See Home and Farm., December 15, 1890; also with Mally during spring 

 of 1891.) They were found rigid, lying around the base of the form, 

 "just as they laid down their tools," with a mold substance forming 

 in the rings of the segments. These facts may prove of scientific in- 

 terest, but I can not see how they may prove of any i)ractical value 

 to cotton growers, as a single dead specimen from disease M-as all that 

 was found last j^ear, and only a few this year. 



Natural Enemies.— Nothing ranks with the Sapsucker as a de-> 

 structive agent. When conditions and arrangements are effected, if we 

 could or would arrange early corn about our cotton that would be silk- 

 ing the last of May and first of June, no doubt nearly or all of these 

 worms could be trapped in it, and then, if there is no dying timber 

 near, the Sapsucker will get the remaining worm or two left on the ears 

 of corn. I have in mind the extra early varieties of corn, and I hope 

 the Department will furnish me with the earliest variety obtainable 

 and results will be given to you. This season much decaying timber 

 around my farm prevented such satisftictory results as were obtained 

 last season, or hoped for this; the birds very often worked or fed in the 

 timber when but foiithe presence of the timber they would have been 

 in the corn; last year they cleaned up all worms in my trap corn on 

 Brush Creek. The Southern Sapsucker does no injury to corn; he sel- 

 dofu fails to find his worm, and as soon as it is taken out flies to another 

 ear, and so on. . It is a reflection on humanity to be guilty of this de- 

 struction. The Blue Jay and the Bed Cockatoo Woodpecker, though 

 destructive to worms, will eat corn, and a line of distinction should be 

 drawn. Second in rank should be placed the Soldier Bugs. While 

 making observations in the field I have often been amused watching 



