ESTIMATES OF LOSS BY STATES. 67 



in the season, the bulk ot cotton generally forms and matures before 

 the appearance of the worm in great numbers, and the loss is small, 

 while in late fields, as high as 66 per cent, has been lost. 



Mr. J. H. Galloway, of Montgomery County, Alabama, gives the fol- 

 lowing as his opinion upon the subject : 



When the crop is well advanced, the land being well prepared, and planted just as 

 early as the season will permit, cultivated well and rapidly, and, as the saying is, 

 pushed from the word " go," the loss is much less than when planted late and poorly 

 cultivated. 



Mr. David Lee, of Mount Willing, Lowndes County, Ala., says : 



If the season is favorable, the cotton planted early, and well cultivated, much is 



gained, and the loss would be light, as there would be less for the worms to destroy. 



But if the spring is cool and wet, and the summer wet, the crop will, of necessity, be 



badly cultivated, and consequently will be late ; under such disadvantages the crop 



would be cut off one-third. 



ESTIMATES OF LOSS BY STATES. 



In estimating the total amount of losses from the ravages of cotton- 

 worms in the United States, the data extends over such a long period 

 from 1825 to 1878 we are only able to form a general average for a 

 series of years. In calculating the quantity destroyed, an average crop 

 of the past fourteen years, which is only a little larger than an average 

 crop of fourteen years prior to 1861, is taken as the basis. Such average 

 is an increase of about 25 per cent, upon the crop of 1869, a little in ex- 

 cess of three and a quarter millions of bales. 



In estimating for the States, especially where the data is incomplete, 

 as it necessarily must be, the localities of heaviest production must be 

 considered and due allowance made for counties producing only a tenth, 

 or perhaps, a twentieth as much, on account of greater isolation of the 

 plantations. A loss of 25 per cent, in Dallas County, Alabama, as an 

 example, would represent in round numbers a decrease in value of the 

 crop to the extent of $360,000, while the same percentage of injury for 

 the same year in Marion County, would represent a loss of but $7,000. 

 It is therefore necessary, after a percentage of injury has been calcu- 

 lated from the data in hand, to study location and the amount of cotton 

 there produced in favorable years, and allowing a small deduction for 

 other causes of loss that may not have been noted, to strike a general 

 average for the whole State, which will be found from 5 to 10 per cent, 

 lower. 



Although the losses in recent years have been more severely felt in 

 Texas than in any other State, we select Alabama to illustrate the 

 method of obtaining an estimate, partly from the fact that it represents 

 the average of injury, but more particularly because the fullest returns 

 have been received from this section of the cotton-growing region. These 

 returns have been received from the cotton belt of heaviest producing 

 counties, thirteen in number, as follows : Hall, Sumpter, Marengo, Perry, 



