188 COTTON 



May, there is easily time enough for five or six 

 generations in each season. What a population 

 for a single year! Do you wonder that their 

 ravages are so destructive, or their reputation for 

 evil so extensive ? 



Nor do these pests limit their work to the cotton 

 plant alone; they are just as aggressive in the 

 fields of corn as in the cotton fields. They find 

 pleasant feeding grounds in both tassels and grow- 

 ing ears. When the former have passed their edible 

 state and the latter have become too hard for 

 eating, the moth seeks other feeding grounds, new 

 cotton perhaps, or a later-maturing corn somewhat 

 farther off; maybe a tomato field lies in some other 

 direction: if so, it will be found and appropriated 

 for the use of the new-coming brood. 



WHEN WINTER COMES 



As a rule, larvae of the latest broods seek winter 

 homes in the ground and there remain until the 

 warm days of spring rescue them when they issue 

 forth as moths, soon to lay eggs preparatory to 

 another summer's campaign. But this is not the 

 only way the winter months are passed, for adult 

 moths are known to seek shelter in some protected 

 place and hibernate during the cold weather, 

 perhaps only a few, however, in the adult or moth 

 stage. 



ENEMIES OF THE INSECT 



Many birds feed constantly on worms. Nat- 

 urally the cotton caterpillar and the cotton boll 

 worm do not escape this provision by which nature 

 seeks to keep them and other insect pests in check. 

 The boll worm is the more favored of these two 



