REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 345 



Inasmuch as an extended discussion of poisons and metbods of apply- 

 ing lias, been given in that part of the report relating to the cotton-worm, 

 any remarks on this head will be unnecessary. 



JEI AND -PICKING. — We should be, far from advising any planter to at- 

 tempt to rid himself of the boll-worm by collecting them from cotton by 

 hand. The plan which we do mean to suggest under this heading is 

 killing the earlier brood of the insect upon corn as a preventive agaiUwSt 

 future injuries in cotton. 



This idea was first suggested by Col. B. A. Sorsby, as stated in the 

 Department of Agriculture Report for 1855: 



Col. B. A. Sorsby, of ColumbTis, iu Georgia, has hred bolli these inserts (corn and 

 boll worms) and declares them to be the same; and, moreover, when, according to his 

 advice, the com was carefully wormed on two or three plantations, the boll-worms 

 did not make their appearance that season on the cotton, notwithstanding that on 

 neighboring plantations they committed great ravages. 



Mr. E. Sanderson, in 1858, having come to the conclusion that the 

 two insects were identical,* ad^ised the early planting and forcing of 

 cotton, and the late planting of alternate rows of com, with the view of 

 keeping the worms supplied with a stock of the food-plant which they 

 evidently preferred. 



In 1859, Mr. Peyton King, of Enterprise, in commenting upon Mr. 

 Sanderson's paper, said : 



If they are the same, their ravages may be to a great extent lessened by the plan 

 BHggested by Mr. Sanderson — that of planting the com crop later. And to his plan I 

 would suggest another — that of sending hands at the proper time through the com 

 for the purpose of opening slightly every ear with a dead silk, to extract and destroy 

 the worm, and thereby destroy the miller. This might pay in reference to the corn 

 alone, t 



No attention seems to have been paid to either of these suggestions, 

 and the remedy has never come into use. 



The same idea suggested itself to me during n y stay in the field in 

 the summer of 1878, but, as I anived in the latter part of July, I was 

 only able to theorize. Mr. Trelea,se was instructed to pay attention to 

 this point, and in his report we find the following: 



Since the earliest broods of larvae are fonnd on the maize, or Indian com, first in the 

 stalk, later in the ears, and since the tendency of the species to multiply in geometrical 

 progression makes it desirable to destroy the early broods if possible, I would suggest 

 hand-picking of these earlier broods as the best way known to me of dealing with 

 the post. As was stated when speaking of the natural history of Heliothis, if one of 

 those larvae has taken up its abode in a stalk of corn, the fact can be detected by a 

 very superficial examination, owing <fco the holes formed in the leaves. Let, then, 

 each plow-hand be instructed, when cultivating the com, to stop whenever he finds 

 Bnch a stalk, and catch and kill the worm, even though it should occasionally be 

 necessary to destroy the plant in doing this, for the hill may be replanted, and the 

 larvae thus killed might, if suffered to live, become iu a few generations the parent 

 of hundreds of boll-worms. Later, after the com is laid by and has begun to fruit, 

 boys nuiy be sent through the fields to kill the "tassel-worms," the presence of which 

 may be detected by the excrement at the end of the ear or by the silk being eaten 

 away. To catch these it will be only necessary to open the husk for a short distance 

 back from the end of the ear, and, from the ease of discovering affected ears, the ex- 

 pense will not be great. It is objected to this that ears so opened are exposed to the 

 weather and to the attacks of birds. Though it must be admitted that this is true 

 to a certain point, the destruction of all ears so interfered with does not follow, and 

 the great lessening of the next crop of boU-worms will, I am certain, more than pay 

 for what corn is sacrificed. 



The boll-worm cannot be expected to be exterminated by this process, 

 since it has so many other food-plants from which it could, at any time, 



•American Cotton Planter, November, 1858. 

 UUd., Febraary, 1859. 



