258 REPORT UPON COTTON INSECTS. 



ripe aiid decaying fruits of different sorts, and this proclivity very natur- 

 ally suggests the placing of poisoned baits. Years ago this used to be 

 practised very much more extensively than at the present day. Mr. 

 Glover long recommended this remedy in the Department of Agriculture 

 Reports, his first mention of it being a detailed account of the phenome- 

 nal success of Col. B. A. Sorsby, in the report for 1855. The old files 

 of the Southern agricultural papers contain frequent mention of the 

 use of the method. One of the most remarkable statements was con- 

 tained in the Southern Cultivator (Vol. VIII, p. 132) to the effect that 

 the writer had, with 80 plates of poisoned molasses and vinegar, aver- 

 aged 1,000 moths a night throughout the season. 



The answers of correspondents to question la of the 1878 circular 

 show that this remedy has almost entirely fallen into disuse. Some 

 planters, however, still believe in its efficacy. We may quote the fol- 

 lowing : 



But few efforts have been made to destroy the moths, farmers of late years chiefly 

 relying on poisoning the worms ; however, the idea is gaining foothold that it is bet- 

 ter to try and destroy the moth and thereby prevent the appearance of the worm in 

 destructive numbers. The best mode seems to be to set up lights in the field above or 

 in front of some sweet adhesive substance. Moths appear to be attracted by all sweet 

 substances. I have seen them attracted by thousands, after the first brood had web- 

 bed up, to dried peaches that were dried on boards in the sun, and had been covered 

 up at night with boards, the moths collecting by thousands under the covering of the 

 dried peaches, hundreds being killed by a lamp in a short time. A mouse made a 

 nest with the dead moths the same night. [ J. H. Krancher; 



Watermelons cut open and spread around with arsenic sprinkled on will kill the 

 moth. 



I used, with full effect, the arsenite of soda combined with a little vinegar and mo- 

 lasses. I did not use any intoxicating liquids, as I was fully satisfied that every moth 

 imbibing the poisoned sweet was instantly killed ; none of the dead appearing at 

 any appreciable distance from the pans. [W. J. Jones. 



Little or no effort has been made. My opinion is that something should be done 

 with poisoned molasses and fires or lamps. A few nights ago I placed a cup three 

 inches in diameter, with a little molasses in it, a distance from lights and cotton- 

 plants, and found six moths in it next morning, all of them cotton-caterpillar moths 

 A year or two ago I divided an overripe watermelon and placed it in a similar posi- 

 tion, and by eight o'clock at night there were 50 or 75 moths feeding on it. [Jno. 

 Bradford, Leon County; Florida. 



The following testimony is from Dr. Anderson : 



As an instance of the effect of light and its fondness for sweets, I will mention what 

 a neighbor told me, and for which, to a great extent, I had ocular demonstration. 

 He was engaged in boiling sirup from the first of September to the last of October. 

 His yard, where the evaporating pan was, opened upon a field of 60 or 80 acres of 

 cotton. He each morning found his pan covered with moths, and from first to last 

 thought he had emptied out one bushel of moths. Another case showing strikingly 

 the effect of lights and sweets was told me by a highly valued Texas correspondent. 

 A neighbor of his, by the use of lights and poisoned sweets. h;id made 1,000 bales of 

 cotton on 1,000 acres, while his neighbors who had not used them had been badly 

 damaged. 



During the season of 1878 experiments were made by Professor Smith, 

 .at Tuscaloosa, Ala., in the latter part of the season, and by Professor 



