APPENDIX I REPORTS OF OBSERVERS. 357 



substance. The ovipositor cannot penetrate any solid substance, and if made to ad- 

 here to the bark or outer surface the eggs would perish from exposure to the weather. 



Every practical planter who has watched closely the cotton army worm knows that 

 the egg is invariably deposited by the mother moth on the cotton leaf, mostly on the 

 under or shady side. This egg is very small, of a pale green color, oblong in shape, 

 and is attached by a very delicate web, which holds it firmly to its place. 



The larva is hatched from this egg in from three to five days, being somewhat in- 

 fluenced by the conditions of the weather. If too wet or very dry the eggs often perish 

 outright. At the first stage of life the larva are scarcely visible to the naked eye, 

 and are only known to be at work by the rank smell of decaying vegetation, the odor 

 from which can never be mistaken. In from nine to eleven days the full-grown worm 

 weaves a delicate web about itself, and when fully enveloped or protected by its own 

 plexus descends an attenuated thread to the ground, where it makes its own hiding 

 place and in time transforms into the inoth. This process is repeated till three genera- 

 tions have appeared, consuming every cotton leaf and leaving the stalk as bare and 

 sere as though withered by the nipping frosts. 



Great numbers of these chrysalides are plowed up every planting season, when they 

 perish from exposure on the surface of the ground or are consumed by the feathered 

 tribes that follow in the wake of the plow. 



I have watched the flight of the moths, when they have unearthed themselves, have 

 followed them for long distances, and have always found them extremely clumsy on the 

 wing, alighting in the grass, weeds or cotton every fifteen or twenty steps, and I am 

 convinced that they are incapable of long or extended flight. They cannot, therefore, 

 come every season from another or distant climate. They have found here a congenial 

 sphere and a limitless supply of food. 



With all these established facts, both science and observation have yet failed to ex- 

 plain why the moth disappears for years, then reappears in full force and undiuiinshed 

 numbers upon the field of its operations. 



My own recollection is distinct, and is confirmed by all the older planters, that in 

 this State for a period of ten years (from 1853 to 1863), the cotton army worm disap- 

 peared almost entirely from our fields. From 1864 to 1874 it appeared every year in 

 great numbers south of the 32d parallel. 



In 1875 it was found only in small numbers, and in detached localities, inflicting 

 slight damage. In 1876 and 1877 it covered the land in the midst of a prolonged drought, 

 while the leaves were crisp, devastating the crops where not checked by the use of 

 some poisonous compound. 



This leads me to note some suggestions upon the use of poisons and the proper mode 

 of applying the same, based upon the correctness of the theory that the moth is now 

 naturalized in the cotton region, as through these agencies this pest may be in time 

 annihilated and the planting interest saved an annual loss of thirty to forty millions 

 of dollars. But this can only be accomplished by the combined effort of skill, labor, 



From experiments which I have made of every destructive agent, I have found noth- 

 ing so cheap or more effectual, and with all so little likely to effect injuriously the cot- 

 ton-plant or the distributor of the poison, as a mixture of the arseniate of soda and 

 water in certain given proportions. 



This mixture is now prepared at the Soda Chemical Works under a patent issued to 

 John D. Braman, in May, 1874. This preparation has been extensively used, and, where 

 printed instructions were strictly followed, has never failed to kill the worm in brief 

 time without any sensible injury to the plant or its fruit, and in no wise affecting 

 those who applied it, as has often been the complaint against Paris green. The pres- 

 ent cost does not exceed 25 cents per acre, while the green, if genuine, will reach near 

 $2 per acre. 



Considering the manifest advantages and the immense saving in the crops it is cer- 

 tainly the duty of legislative powers (either Congress or the several State legislatures 

 of the cotton-growing States) to devise some measure which will place both the poison- 

 ous compound and some efficient agent for its distribution upon the cotton within the 

 reach of every laborer engaged in its cultivation. Such a measure cannot fail in due 

 time to eradicate this ravenous insect. 



There are many well-known devices for the extinction of the moth, the prolific 

 mother of the cotton army worm, all of which, upon a limited scale, have proved more 

 or less successful, but equally requiring capital to make a larger scope of experiment 

 by the use of torches or lighted lamps placed in the cotton-fields, at suitable distances, 

 with poisonous liquids to attract the moth. This view of the question seems to have 

 attracted the special notice and observation of Professor Riley, under whose instruc- 

 tions I have just concluded some experiments, which have been fully reported to him 

 and are well worthy of farther trial at the proper season next year. I was well satisfied 

 from the results of my experiments that a large portion of the mother moths may be 



