DESTRUCTION OF EARLY BROODS. 313 



cotton and the late planting of alternate rows of corn, with the view 

 of keeping the worms supplied with a stock of the food-plant which 

 they evidently preferred. 



In 1859, Mr. Peyton King, of Enterprise, in commenting upon Mr. 

 Sanderson's paper, said : 



If they are the same, their ravages may be to a great extent lessened by the plan 

 suggested by Mr. Sanderson that of planting the corn crop later. And to his plan 

 I would suggest another that of sending hands at the proper time through the corn 

 for the purpose of opening slightly every ear with a dead silk, to extract and destroy 

 the worm, and thereby destroy the miller. This might pay in reference to the corn 

 alone.* 



No attention seems to have been paid to either of these suggestions, 

 and the remedy has never come into use. 



The same idea suggested itself to me during my stay in the field in 

 the summer of 1878, but, as I arrived in the latter part of July, I was 

 only able to theorize. Mr. Trelease was instructed to pay attenton to 

 this point, and in his report we find the following : 



Since the earliest broods of larvae are found on the maize or Indian corn, first in the 

 stalk, later in the ears, and since the tendency of the species to multiply in geometrical 

 progression makes it desirable to destroy the early broods if possible, I would suggest 

 hand-picking of these earlier broods as the best way known to me of dealing with 

 the pest. As was stated when speaking of the natural history of Heliothis, if one of 

 these larvae has taken up its abode in a stalk of corn, the fact can be detected by a 

 very superficial examination, owing to the holes formed in the leaves. Let, then, 

 each plow-hand be instructed, when cultivating the corn, to stop whenever he finds 

 such a stalk, and catch and kill the worm, even though it should occasionally be 

 necessary to destroy the plant in doing this, for the hill may be replanted, and the 

 larvae thus killed might, if suffered to live, become in a few generations the parent 

 of hundreds of boll-worms. Later, after the corn is laid by and has begun to fruit, 

 boys may be sent through the fields to kill the " tassel worms," the presence of which 

 may be detected by the excrement at the end of the ear, or by the silk being eaten 

 away. To catch these it will be only necessary to open the husk for a short distance 

 back from the end of the ear, and, from the ease of discovering affected ears, the ex- 

 pense will not be great. It is objected to this that ears so opened are exposed to the 

 weather and to the attacks of birds. Though it must be admitted that this is true 

 to a certain point, the destruction of all ears so interfered with does not follow, and 

 the great lessening of the next crop of boll-worms will, I am certain, more than pay 

 for what corn is sacrificed. 



The boll- worm cannot be expected to be exterminated by this process, 

 since it has so many other food plants from which it could, at any time, 

 migrate to corn or cotton ; but, inasmuch as corn appears to be its favorite 

 food, its numbers could be very greatly lessened, and its injuries to cotton 

 could be almost done away with by this process. We advise planters 

 by all means to try it, and we assure them that their time will not be lost. 

 In sections of the cotton-belt which are badly troubled with the boll- 

 worm, and where corn is not grown, it will be well to plant the latter 

 crop and use it as a trap, as advised above. 



EOTATION OF CEOPS. In the light of the relation of the corn and boll 

 worms, and of the numerous food plants of Heliothis, we may here men- 



*IUd, February, 1859. 



