294 REPORT UPON COTTON INSECTS. 



Report for 1854, in an article headed "Insects infesting the cotton- 

 plant," by Townend Glover. Mr. Glover says : 



There is a striking similarity between the boll-worm and the corn-worm, in appear- 

 ance, food, and habits, both in the caterpillar and perfect state, whicli leads to the 

 supposition that the boll-worm may be the young of the corn-worm moth, and the 

 eggs deposited on the young bolls as the nearest substitTate for green corn, and placed 

 on them only when the corn has become too old and hard for their food. * * * Col. 

 B. A. Sorsby, of Columbus, Miss., has bred both insects, and declares them to bo the 

 same ; and moreover when, according to his advice, the corn was carefully wormed, 

 on two or three plantations, the boll-worms did not make their appearance that season 

 on the cotton, notwithstanding on neighboring plantations they committed great 

 ravages. 



To Col. B. A. Sorsby, then, must be given the credit for first making 

 this important discovery. 



The next mention of the fact with which we have met is in the Amer- 

 ican Cotton Planter for August, 1855, in an article on the cotton- worm, 

 by J. H. Zimmerman, M. D. (See bibliographical list to Part I.) Dr. 

 Zimmerman says (p. 229) : 



Judging from analogy, I supposed it to be more than probable that the worm that 

 preys on the ends of the ears of our green corn, and the buds or tassels before 

 they come out, was the same kind or species so destructive to the cotton, and that it 

 would be equally as destructive to the corn crops were it not for the fact that the 

 corn matures with the first crop or generation of the worm, and before it becomes nu- 

 merous by a succession of generations. This supposition proved to be correct on a 

 further investigation. I have obtained the worm from the ears of the green corn, 

 and have fed it on the cotton-bolls, and it would soon take on the same physical com- 

 plexion and features, in every particular, of those which were obtained from the 

 cotton. 



The statement of Colonel Sorsby was repeated in the Department 

 of Agriculture Report for 1855. In 1858, in a communication to the 

 American Cotton Planter for November of that year, Mr. E. Sanderson 



Now, Mr. Editor, my opinion is that I can trace the worms from the corn-fields to 

 the cotton-fields, though 1 may be mistaken in this ; but the first place that I can find the 

 worm, the same species, is in the corn-fields, in the roasting-ears. I have looked and 

 examined in every hole and corner to find where they make their first appearance, 

 and I can find them nowhere but in the corn-fields. There they may be found in the 

 roasting-ear, &c. 



The first time that Mr. Glover recorded his belief in the identity of 

 the two insects was in the Department of Agriculture Report for 1804, 

 p. 554, in the following words : 



The corn-worm is very injurious in several parts of the country, especially in the 

 Middle and Southern States. * * * We have seen a similar insect, if not the 

 same, in the Southern States, where it is known as the cotton-boll worm, and is ex- 

 ceedingly destructive to cotton. Moreover, we have fed the corn-worm, found on 

 corn, on cotton-bolls, and vice versa, and the moths produced were identical. 



Mr. Glover repeats in the Monthly Report for July, 186G : 

 For the sake of proving this fact, I have frequently taken the worms from unripe 

 ears of corn and fed them entirely on cotton-bolls, as also the worms from cotton and 



