312 REPORT UPON COTTON INSECTS. 



ARTIFICIAL RE3IEDLES. 



TOPPING. Topping the cotton at a certain time of the year has been 

 urged as a means of destroying the eggs both of the cotton-worm and 

 and boll-worm moths. It has already been shown that this would not 

 prove efficacious as a remedy for the cotton-worm, and the result would 

 be the same with the boll- worm. It is true that some eggs would be 

 destroyed in this way, but actual count has shown that the destruction 

 of those eggs which are deposited upon the upper part of the plant 

 would not pay for the labor of topping. 



POISONING. It has always been said that the strong point of the boll- 

 worm lay in the fact that it worked within the boll where no poison 

 could reach it, and that this method of destruction would prove of no 

 avail. Our study of the habits of the insect has shown us, as before 

 stated, that by far the greater number of the eggs are laid upon the 

 leaves, and that the newly-hatched larvae, before migrating to flower- 

 buds or bolls, almost invariably feed to a greater or less extent upon the 

 leaf where they were born. This shows, then, that a well-distributed 

 poisonous mixture would, in all probability, destroy great numbers of the 

 young worms. Observation has also shown that well-grown boll-worms, 

 migrating from boll to boll, are also frequently killed by eating poisoned 

 leaves. There is, then, a double reason for poisoning worm-infested cot 

 ton. The proper time for poisoning for the boll- worm, in regions where 

 there is reason to suspect an extensive migration from corn to cotton, 

 is a few days, say a week, after the full-grown worms are found in the 

 hardening ears of corn, or when the moths are observed to fly abund- 

 antly after the ear has begun to harden. The poisoning for the third 

 brood proper of the cotton- worm and of the boll- worm may be done simul- 

 taneously. 



Inasmuch as an extended discussion of poisons and methods of apply- 

 ing has been given in Chapter VII, of Part I, any remarks on this head 

 will be unnecessary. 



HAND-PICKING. We should be far from advising any planter to at- 

 tempt to rid himself of the boll- worm by collecting them from cotton by 

 hand. The plan which we do mean to suggest under this heading is 

 killing the earlier brood of the insect upon corn as a preventive against 

 future injuries in cotton. 



This idea was first suggested by Col. B. A. Sorsby, as stated in the 

 Department of Agriculture report for 1855 : 



Col. B. A. Sorsby, of Columbus, in Georgia, has bred both these insects (corn and 

 boll worms) and declares them to be 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 that on neighboring 

 plantations they committed great ravages. 



Mr. E. Sanderson, in 1858, having come to the conclusion that the 

 two insects were identical,* advised the early planting and forcing of 



* American Cotton Planter, November, 1858. 



