THE COTTON- WORM IN OTHER COUNTRIES. 71 



Fifty dollars has been assumed as the price of a bale of cotton, though 

 an average of 'fourteen years would raise these figures considerably. 

 The plantation prices, from 1865 to 1870, ranged from 40 cents per pound 

 down to 12 cents; or, per bale, from $180 to $60; and cotton is now sold 

 upon the plantation at $40. Our estimate, therefore, of $50 per bale, 

 is only an average for the last eight years. 



Of course the percentage of loss, as given in the preceding pages, 

 cannot be demonstrated beyond possibility of cavil; the aim has been to 

 make them too low, rather than a possible exaggeration. 



THE COTTON-WORM IN OTHER COUNTRIES. 



As would be inferred from the discussion at the beginning of this chap- 

 ter, the larva of Aletia argillacea attacks cotton only in the cotton-grow- 

 ing regions of North and South America and in the intervening 

 islands. There was, indeed, a rumor that went the rounds of the press 

 some years ago to the effect that the cotton- worm had made its appear- 

 ance in Egypt shortly after an importation of American seed, but inves- 

 tigation proved it to be false. India, America's greatest competitor in 

 cotton culture, has a destructive cotton enemy in the shape of a boll- 

 worm, differing greatly, however, from our boll- worm, but equally des- 

 tructive. * 



The cotton crop in Australia is injured by the cotton-bug (allied to 

 the " red bug " of the Bahamas and Florida) ; in Greece, the cut- worms 

 injure the young crop ; in Italy and in Sicily larvae of several species 

 injure the growing plant, and in other cotton-growing countries local 

 insect enemies are found ; but all of these countries are blessed with im- 

 munity from the ravages of the American cotton- worm. 



Of the extent of its injuries in the West Indies, in the latter part of 

 the last century, some idea has already been given. In the Bahamas 

 the cotton-worm was injurious every year, from the time where we left 

 it up to 1834, when the emancipation of the slaves took place and put 

 an end to cotton culture. The insects were to be seen the whole year 

 round, but were less numerous after the stormy season, which is in Sep- 

 tember and October, and most numerous just before the beginning of the 

 gales. In general, Aletia was not considered by the natives as a serious 

 enemy to the cotton plant, as the damage done by it was always small 

 compared to that done by the " cotton-bug" (Dysdercus suturellus, H. Schf). 

 Upon the breaking out of the civil war in the United States, cotton culture 

 recommenced in the Bahamas with great activity, and upon the close of 

 the war again decreased, Long Island and Exuma being the only islands 

 pursuing its cultivation at present. All inhabitants unite in saying that 

 Aletia has not been seen since a great hurricane which took place in 



* The larva of Depressaria gossypiella Saunders, incidentally mentioned in chapter I. 

 The moth, which is a small Tineid, lays the egg in the blossom, and the young larva 

 mines in the forming seed, preventing the maturing of the boll. One-fourth of the 

 crop is frequently lost from the ravages of this insect. 



