184 COTTON 



from the southern portions of the country along the 

 Gulf each year must furnish the northern popula- 

 tion, and so great is the number, the hosts often do 

 considerable damage to late peaches in Kansas and 

 ruin acres of cantaloupes as far north as Wisconsin. 



WHERE THE WINTER IS SPENT 



The moths that go to the north each season 

 never live through the winter; they are too far 

 from home to get back again, and the winter is too 

 severe for them to endure the cold; hence they 

 never see the coming of a new year. It is left to 

 their relatives and their kind that abide in the 

 warmer sections of the most southern portions of 

 the Cotton Belt. Great numbers of these likewise 

 perish. But of course many succeed in finding 

 winter quarters to their liking, through the shelter 

 of rank wire grass, and other vegetation. Ex- 

 ceptionally few of these survive, but their large 

 broods quickly populate all their territory, and the 

 caterpillars are as numerous as the season before. 



GETTING RID OF THEM 



The natural way to rid the land of these pests 

 would be to destroy their winter quarters, and they 

 would perish as they do when attacked by like 

 unfavorable conditions elsewhere. This seems im- 

 practicable now, since the undrained territory 

 and waste places of their winter resorts are so 

 extensive. 



A COMMON REMEDY 



Where the caterpillar becomes very troublesome, 



