264 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



STATISTICS OF LOSSES. 



The following tal>le presents the estimated losses from the ravages of 

 the cotton-caterpillar. The i)eri;entage estimates are taken from the 

 answers of correspondents, and the actual loss loadily obtained fi'om the 

 known average value of the croi^: 



The terms "highest" and "lowest," in the columns devoted to per- 

 centage of loss, do not refer to the greatest amount of injury, or the re- 

 verse, inflicted in individual localities, but to a general average for the 

 principal counties of heaviest production on the one hand, on the average 

 for the remainder of the State on the other. The average for the State 

 as a whole appears in the third coltunn. 



The result shows a possible loss of $30,000,000 in years of general 

 prevalence of the worm, and as these visitations are becoming more 

 frequent, it is probable that the real losses fiom the cotton -caterpillar 

 are equivalent to an average of $15,000,000 to $20,000,000 annually for 

 the entire period since the war. There is much evidence ahso to show 

 that the looses were equally disastrous prior to 1861. 



It should bo stated that the Indiau Territory, Virginia, and wsorae other 

 States, produce a small amount of cotton ; which, with the productions 

 of North Carolina, are not included in the above figures. It should also 

 be borne in mind that while the quantities are assumed, as State aver- 

 ages for the period since the war, they arc approximately correct, suifi- 

 ciently so for the purposes of this exposition. 



Fifty dollars has been assumed as the price of a bale of cotton, though 

 an average of fourteen years would raise these figures considerably. 

 The plantation prices, from 18G5 to 1870, ranged from 40 cents per pound 

 down to 12 cents ; or, per bale, from $180 to $G0 ; and cotton is now sold 

 upon the plantation at $10. Our estimate, therefore, of $50 per bale, 

 is only an average for the last eight years. 



Of course the percentage of loss cannot be demonstrated beyond pos- 

 sibility of cavil ; the aim has been to make it too low, rather than a pos- 

 sible exaggeration. 



HABITS AND NATURAL HISTORY. 



The egg. — Tn this stage of its existence the cotton-worm is known 

 to but few people, both its color and size shielding it from the obtscrva- 

 tiojQi of untrained eyes. Every cotton planter sliould, however, not only 



