DOMESTIC FOWLS VS. COTTON-WORMS. 139 



Trelease observed many bats around the jujube trees on which the moths 

 were collected at night, repeatedly darting under and each time catch- 

 ing a moth. It is hard to estimate the amount of good which is accom- 

 plished iu this way, as with each female moth is usually destroyed some 

 hundreds of embryo worms. 



Our list of birds is a longer one. It is probable that the planters in 

 general do not sufficiently appreciate the amount of good which birds 

 as a class do for them. There are many who at this late date insist that 

 no bird will touch the cotton- worm. One correspondent has the follow- 

 ing upon this point: 



I have spent much time in watching this point. I have even thrown them among 

 chickens and they refused to touch them. When a field of cotton is devoured, and the 

 worms start to travel, moving simultaneously across woodland, road, street, and dam, 

 up branches and ravines, I have seen them exposed to birds, flies, hogs, &c., but have 

 never seen anything eat them. 



Many hold this opinion, and it is difficult to say what is the cause of it. 



The use of domestic fowls has always been urged as a remedy for the 

 cotton-worm, and undoubtedly they can be used to a great advantage. 

 It was always the practice of Mr. John Townsend, of Saint John's, S. C., 

 a most successful planter, to scatter corn over the fields to invite the 

 notice of wild birds, and while they destroyed the worms upon the top 

 cotton he drove his flocks of turkeys into the field to feed upon those 

 upon the lower branches.* 



Dr. Chisholm mentions the use of fowls for a similar purpose in 

 Guiana as long ago as 1801. Mr. Schwarz, in speaking of Mr. J. Dono- 

 van, a successful planter of Kushla, Ala., says : 



Mr. Donovan is always able to keep the worms in check by the following simple 

 and cheap method: He drives his large flock of turkeys into the field, and if the 

 plants are too high a boy brings the worms down by knocking at the plants with a 

 stick. This is repeated every day, and this remedy has so far proved a success. Of 

 course it can only be applied in small fields which are near the house and where the 

 cotton plants are not of large size. According to Mr. Donovan, the chickens are very 

 fond, too, of the cotton- worms, but, of course, cannot reach as high as the turkeys. 



Dr. John Peurifoy, of Montgomery, Ala., makes the following propo- 

 sition : 



All the birds feed upon the moths ; and the barn-yard fowls, even the geese, eat the 

 worms with great gusto. And in this connection it occurs to us that henneries might 

 be built at proper distances and made a paying institution; for we have noticed that 

 all around the barn-yard the cotton is saved from the worm, and continues to grow 

 and develop a full crop for several acres, or as far out as the hens feed, while the 

 balance is completely riddled, and the loss at times reaches one-half the crop. This 

 proposition would be laughed at if named here, while the planters pay $1.25 per acre 

 for Paris green, and if the season be raiuy the poison fails and great loss results. 



We will here enumerate a few of the testimonials on the poultry ques- 

 tion: 



Domestic fowls eat them voraciously. [W. W. Hand, Forkland, Greene County, 

 Ala. 



* Seabrook's Memoir, p. 44. 



