240 REPORT UPON COTTON INSECTS. 



cotton may be poisoned in one day. The eight hands are distributed as 

 follows : One works the pump ; one carries the bucket from which the 

 poison is pumped; three supply this one with the mixture; three are 

 with the wagon getting water and mixing the poison. 



Although the plan just described is the one most generally used, we 

 think that adopted by Mr. Trelease during the present season is prefer- 

 able, requiring as it does fewer hands. This method is illustrated in 

 Fig. 51. 



A 40-gallon barrel containing the mixture is placed on an ordinary 

 four-wheeled wagon, the wheels being 5 feet apart, and the lowest axle 

 23 inches from the ground. The wagon is drawn by two mules, these 

 walking in the furrows on either side of the row of cotton over which 

 the wagon passes. One hand drives the team and two others, provided 

 with fountain pumps, distribute the poison from the barrel. In this way 

 nine rows of cotton are poisoned each trip across the field. In ordinary 

 cases one or two other hands with a team can keep these supplied with 

 water. By this method poison can be applied .very rapidly and with a 

 minimum number of hands. The experiments show that the cotton was 

 not seriously injured by the team or wagon, although much of it was as 

 high as the top of the wagon-box, and there was none that was not 

 bent as the axle passed over it. Certainly the time and labor saved will, 

 except in cases where the cotton is very high and closely interlocked 

 between the rows, more than pay for the injury done to the cotton. I 

 suggest the following improvement to the apparatus used this season : 

 Have a cover fitted to the barrel to prevent the spilling of the poison. 

 This cover should have three holes; one for a dasher (similar to that 

 used in churns) for agitating the mixture; the two other holes to admit 

 the hose of the pumps. The dasher may be worked by a boy or the men 

 with the pumps. 



Although the method above described is the most practicable yet 

 devised, we feel that it can be improved upon. Our observations con- 

 vince us that the thing most needed is a machine which can be drawn 

 by one or two horses and which will throw a spray of water on the under 

 side of the leaves. 



The present modes of poisoning are defective in that they require a 

 large force of hands, often when there is much other work to be done; 

 and what is a much more serious matter, as the poison is applied to the 

 upper side of the leaves of the plant, the young larvae are not killed 

 until they are large enough to eat through the leaves. This would be 

 of less importance could the poison be made to adhere to the leaves; 

 but it often happens that the mixtures are washed off the plants by 

 rains soon after being applied, while if they were applied to the lower 

 surface of the leaves all larvae feeding at this time would be poisoned, 

 besides there being less liability of the poison being washed from the 

 plants. 



