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several days from the time of hatching before it finds its way into 

 the boll. In fact, Professor Comstock is of the opinion that a larva 

 may attain its full growth by feeding upon the leaves, though this 

 is evidently the exception and not the rule, as the instinct of the 

 species seems to direct the young worm, as soon as it has eaten 

 enough to give it the necessary strength, to seek for a flower-bed or 

 a young boll. In this way a single caterpillar may destroy several 

 bolls as it travels from one to another, eating out the more tender 

 vital parts of the unopened buds, or the newly forming bolls. As a 

 natural consequence, all the buds or bolls thus eaten wither and fall 

 to the ground ; but before doing so they are abandoned by the worm, 

 which seeks for fresher food. When it has attained sufficient size, 

 it attacks the larger bolls, eating out all or nearly all of the inte- 

 rior, causing that which is not eaten to decay by the rain that may 

 enter the hole, or the exudation of sap from the wounded part.. 



Professor Comstock states that the destruction of the essential 

 parts of the flower before the boll or the pistil has been fertilized, 

 is sometimes as great a source of loss as the destruction of the 

 maturing bolls. It should not be lost sight of, however, that in the 

 economy of the plant, the destruction of a bud before it opens, or 

 of a flower before the fruit begins to form, is not so exhaustive to 

 the plant as the destruction of the fruit after it has wholly or partly 

 formed. In the first place the effort of the plant to produce fruit 

 has been thwarted before much of the nutriment for that purpose 

 had been used, and new buds at once put forth in place of those 

 destroyed, with the energy of the plant but little impaired. In the 

 latter case, more of the nutritive material has gone into the fruit, 

 and a less number of new buds will be formed than if the fruit 

 were destroyed in its early stages. In plants that are practically 

 ever-bearing by reason of not bearing profusely, this would have. but 

 little effect, but most plants have their limit of production, other 

 than frost or other climatic changes. I would not say this with any 

 view of disparaging any reports upon the amount of injury done to 

 the crop by injury to the buds or young bolls, but to call attention 

 to a fact that may be overlooked. 



The extent of injury done to cotton in the South by this worm is 

 estimated by Professor Comstock as scarcely less than that done by 

 the Cotton-worm. He bases this conclusion partly upon his own 

 observations, but largely upon reports received from others during 

 the year that he was assigned to investigate the cotton insects, as 

 well as a collation of facts from other reports upon the subject, 

 covering the observations of a number of years. A few sentences 

 culled from some of these reports may not be uninteresting: 



" There is one other insect that has destroyed more cotton in this 

 locality within the last four years than all other insects combined. 

 It is known here as the Boll-worm." — [J, W. J., Titus Co., Texas. 



" Many think that the Boll- worm is more destructive on an average 

 than the Caterpillar, for the reason that it attacks the cotton, more 

 or less, every year."— [H. H., Hawkinsville, Ala. 



" The Boll-worm does us, upon the whole more damage than the 

 Cotton-worm." — [A. J. C, Montezuma, Ga. 



