CHAPTER VII. 

 REMEDIES. 



The most careful and extended experiments on remedies for the ravages 

 of the cotton-worm which have been carried on under the direction of 

 this department are those conducted by Mr. Trelease during the present 

 year (1879). These experiments were performed under especially favor- 

 able conditions. Mr. Trelease was located upon a plantation in the 

 southern part of Dallas County, Alabama, a locality in which cotton- 

 worms are especially destructive ; he made arrangements by which he 

 could call into service all the help on the place if necessary. In this way 

 he was able to use the remedies on a large scale, and to carefully com- 

 pare the results obtained by different methods. A neighboring jjlanta- 

 tion upon which no efforts were made to protect the cotton served also 

 for comparison. 



As we shall have occasion to refer to these experiments frequently in 

 the course of this chapter, we give here that part of Mr. Trelease's re- 

 port relating to them. 



EEPOET OF EXPERIMENTS BY MR. TRELEASE. 



To prevent the caterpillar from materially injuring the cotton crop, 

 various devices have been proposed. These may be considered as pre- 

 ventives or remedies ; the first getting the crop in such a condition that 

 the worms cannot harm it, the second protecting the crop by killing the 

 caterpillars. 



In most sections the first four broods of larvae do no harm to cotton 

 on elevated dry soil, while the fifth brood does not appear till late in 

 August or even in September. This has led some planters to contend 

 that by highly fertilizing their land they can force the crop to early ma- 

 turity, so that when the worms appear it will have stopped " making." 

 and the removal of the leaves will then be a decided advantage by allow- 

 ing the sunlight to reach the lower bolls, thus preventing them from 

 rotting, as they sometimes do if too much shaded. But in practice it 

 appears that land which, if unfertilized, produces small cotton, making 

 little after the early part of August, will, if fertilized and suitably culti- 

 vated, grow large plants that continue to grow until checked by cold 

 weather. While, therefore, fertilizing the land increases the cotton made 

 up to the middle of August, it also leaves the plants in a vigorous, 

 growing condition at the time when the worms appear, so that it is then 

 desirable to use some remedy. 



With a view to having their cotton through making when the worms 

 appear, others leave two or even three plants where commonly only one 

 is left, believing that early in the season each plant will grow and fruit 



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