36 REPORT UPON COTTON INSECTS. 



erpillars made their appearance this year in Tennessee in considerable 

 numbers, but their ravages were inferior to those of the boll- worm. 

 Shelby County reported 50 per cent, loss from the coinbiu ed ravages of 

 the two insects. In Dickinson County the crops were also damaged by 

 Aletia. In Alabama the caterpillars were this year reported from thirty- 

 eight counties. Many who, up to this time, had considered the loss un- 

 worthy of mention now sent in exaggerated reports of the ravages- 

 Some, however, report them as not so destructive as in the previous year, 

 which, it will be remembered, w T as one of the worst years Alabama ever 

 experienced. The caterpillars made their first appearance along the 

 Chattahoochee River, in Barbour County, and in that county before the 

 end of the season they had damaged the crop to the extent of one-half 

 In Henry County, just south, they were not seen until much later, but 

 then came in immense numbers and stripped the fields. In Coffee and 

 other counties farther to the west only the late cotton suffered seriously 

 Throughout the canebrake the damage was very great. Dallas County 

 suffered a loss of more than one-half. Lowndes reported a loss of 70 

 percent. Montgomery reported "weed late, and worms early; damage 

 very great." Autauga lost from two-thirds to three-fourths of the crop. 

 In Hale the crop was the poorest for thirty-five years. Greene lost one- 

 third. On the other hand Bullock County, surrounded by Barbour, 

 Russell, Pike, Macou, and Montgomery, in which the damage was so 

 great, reported "not many worms." Of the more northern counties, 

 Bibb reported one-third loss ; Chambers reported the top crop ruined and 

 other damage ; in Randolph, Talladega, and Calhouu they were very 

 bad ; in Saint Clair and Jefferson they were also destructive. The cor- 

 respondent from Blount County said : " Caterpillars took the leaves, but 

 this only hastened the ripening of the bolls ; best crop ever produced 

 here." 



In Florida, in 1873, the principal damage was done, not as usual in 

 the northwest but in the northeast. In Jackson, Liberty, Gadsden, and 

 Leon, our old standby's for the caterpillars, they were present in force, 

 but the loss they occasioned was so insignificant compared with that 

 made by the September and October storms that they were lost sight of 

 by the correspondents; then, too, the storms destroyed the caterpillars 

 even more effectually than the cotton. In Jefferson, Taylor, Madison, 

 Suwannee, Hamilton, and Columbia Counties, however, the damage from 

 caterpillars was enormous. The correspondent from Taylor County pa 

 renthesizes, "the caterpillars have nearly stopped cotton culture in this 

 county." 



One of the very worst affected States in 1873 was ( J.-oi -gia. The cat- 

 erpillars were reported earliest from this State, and later in the season 

 were to be found in almost every cotton field within her limits, from De- 

 catur to Whitfield. The counties in which the most injury was doue ? 

 were as follows : Clinch, Sumter, Stewart, Taylor, Wilkinson. Tbese 

 counties lost one half or more. Calhonn, Lee, Worth, Dooly, Marion, 



