72 EEPORT UPON COTTON INSECTS. 



I860, and Mr. Schwarz was unable to find a trace of the insect in any of 

 its stages.* 



In Cuba, no cotton has been grown for fifty years or more, except a 

 very small quantity at the southeast end of the island, and an occa- 

 sional plant for medicinal purposes. Many of the present inhabitants 

 do not know the reason for this, and many Americans traveling in Cuba 

 have expressed their surprise that cotton is not cultivated with such 

 evident advantages in the way of soil and climate. J. P. Guarche, 

 United States consul at Matanzas, writing to the Department of Agri- 

 culture in 1855, explains this as follows : 



Thirty-five or forty years ago attempts were made by emigrants from the United 

 States, but with little or no success ; and since that time the gradual rise in the cost 

 of labor here and the gradual depression in its value in our own country have deterred 

 the most sanguine from the prosecution of this branch of industry. Labor and capital 

 always seek their highest reward, which no doubt will continue to be found in 

 the cultivation of sugar-cane and tobacco, for which this island is so admirably 

 adapted. Another obstacle also exists in the fact that the soil yenei-ates a worm which 

 attacks the cotton plant and destroys the greater part of the crop almost every year. 

 This worm is said to infest the plantations of our Southern States, lut its ravages there 

 are represented to be trifling in comparison with what they are here. 



In the neighboring island of San Domingo the state of things is not 

 nearly so bad. Cotton has there been grown almost since the first set- 

 tlement of the island, and is now an important article of export. The 

 cotton-worm has always been known as one of the drawbacks to the 

 crop, but never as a remarkably serious one, and in the other islands 

 which export cotton at present (Porto Bico, Trinidad. Barbuda, Mar- 

 tinique, and Guadaloupe) the same can be said. As stated in the 

 beginning of this chapter, however, on more than one island the culture 

 of cotton has been entirely abandoned from the attacks of this insect. 



In Mexico the principal cotton-growing regions are the vicinities of 

 Vera Cruz, Matamoros, Monclova, Santiago, Colima, and Acapulco. It 

 is entirely for domestic purposes, however. We have heard of the cot- 

 ton-worm from Matamoros and Monclova, close to the Texan border, in 

 times gone by, and also along the Gulf coast of Vera Cruz. As to its 

 occurrence on the western coast of Mexico we have no data whatsoever. 



In British Guiana cotton culture was begun in 1752 and continued 

 until 1838, when it had dwindled to a very small industry, partly owing 

 to the ravages of the chenille. Dr. Chisholm's observations t in 1801 

 and 1802, of which we have already spoken, are the fullest which we 

 have found upon the cotton-worm in South America, and from them we 

 quote the following : 



One of the most singular circumstances respecting this species of the Phalena is the 

 uncommonly fragrant smell which issues from the plant on which it feeds, although 

 neither the animal itself nor the plant is possessed of the fragrance separately. * 

 So powerful is the odor produced by the ravages of this caterpillar that it may be 

 perceived more than a hundred yards from the plant. A whole year may sometimes 



*See Appendix I, Report of E. A. Schwarz (preliminary). 

 tBrowster's Edinburgh Encylopedia, article Cotton. 



