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considered depends entirely on having- the corn in tassel and silk on or 

 about the first of August, and it must l>e planted considerably later 

 than the normal time of planting corn in the spring. June corn 

 planted the last of May or first of June, with good cultivation, will 

 be silking and tasseling freely by August 1. 



The greatest benefit will come from the use of corn as a trap crop 

 in its general adoption bj^ the planters of a neighborhood. In the 

 case of large plantations it is quite possible to adopt a S3'stem of grow- 

 ing late corn, after oats, wheat, or other earl3^-maturing crops, which 

 will attract the boUworms from the plantation generally. An instance 

 of this practice may be cited on the plantation of Mr. F. L. Maxwell, of 

 Mound, La. It has been the practice of this gentleman to grow small 

 areas of late corn after oats here and there over the plantation to the 

 almost complete protection of his large cotton crop. 



USE OF ARSENICAL POISONS. 



The opinion prevails more or less generally among cotton planters 

 that the boUworm may not be successfully poisoned, by reason of the 

 fact that it bores to the interior of squares and bolls, and does not feed 

 on the exterior parts of the plant to any extent. Such a belief is true 

 only of the later stages of the larva. The average planter seldom has 

 his attention attracted b}^ so small a creature as a newly hatched boll- 

 worm, and it thus results that the habits of the insect during its earl}'^ 

 larval existence are practically unknown to him. This unobserved 

 period in the development of the larva is the only time when poisons 

 ma}'^ be expected to exert any considerable influence in bollworm 

 control. 



From extended studies of the egg-laying habits of the moth and 

 the actions of the newly -hatched larva? there is every reason to believe, 

 on theoretical grounds, that, by the application of poison to cotton at 

 about the time the eggs of the large August generation begin to hatch, 

 the injury from this insect ma}^ be greatly reduced. A series of 

 observations made during the summer of 1903 on the distribution of 

 eggs on cotton plants, as determined by watching the moths while 

 ovipositing, showed that 73 per cent of the eggs were so placed that 

 the resulting larv« would be readily susceptible to poison. By care- 

 fully examining several plants, 65 per cent of the eggs were found to 

 be on other parts than the squares, flowers, and bolls. During 1904 

 similar records were made b}" watching the moths ovipositing in cot- 

 ton fields. The combined record of 25 moths is given below: 



212 



