358 REPORT UPON COTTON INSECTS. 



All theories discussed in this report are valueless except as suggesting methods to 

 ie practical planter of checking the ravages of the cotton army worm. 

 All of which are most respectfully submitted by 



WILLIAM J. JONES. 

 VIRGINIA POINT, TEX., 



November 8, 1878. 

 Hon. WILLIAM G. LE Due, 



Commissioner of Agriculture. 



REPORT OF PROF. J. E. WILLET, OF MACON, GA. 



THE COTTON-WORM. 

 PAST HISTORY. 



1, 1 a, and 1 6. 



Mr. William Jones, Athens, Ga., now advanced in years, planted cotton in Liberty 

 County, Georgia, from 1825 to 1865, and kept notes on the cotton-worm. He writes : 

 " Cotton was introduced into Georgia, as a crop, between 1790 and 1800." Correspond- 

 ents in the older eastern counties give 1800 to 1810 as the date of the introduction of 

 cotton into their counties. 



Mr. William Jones says : " The cotton- worm first made its appearance (in Liberty 

 County) in 1804, and during the month of September the crops were half eaten up, 

 when a hurricane swept over the country and destroyed the worms." 



MrU. C. Plant, of Macon, Ga., and Dr. E. L. McTyre, of Thomasville, Ga., think 

 they are transported from one country to .another in cotton-seed. Mr. Plant married in 

 Glynn County, Georgia, and has been familiar for years past with the best planters on 

 the islands and on the Atlantic coast of Georgia. Mr. Plantstates that the father of Hon. 

 James Hamilton Cowper, of Saint Simon's Island, and Mr. Armstrong brought the first 

 cotton-seed to Glynn County from the Bahamas, and that the cotton- worm was first 

 observed after the second importation of seed, some seven years subsequent to the first in- 

 troduction. Mr. Plant further states that he has seen in an English paper that the 

 cotton-worm first appeared in Egypt some years since, and just after an importation of 

 American cotton-seed. 



Dr. E. L. MoTyre, of Thomasville, Ga., writes: "I settled in the province of San 

 Paulo, Brazil, in the year 18(56, and remained there eight and a half years. The culti- 

 vation of cotton was of recent date then, and they were planting their fourth crop 

 when I arrived. Prior to the year 1863 there had been some cotton planted in the 

 country, perhaps of an indigenous variety, but no one had ever observed a cottpn- 

 wornj, and I believe they had never existed there. In 1862 the price of cotton offering 

 great inducements to Brazilian farmers, they sought to procure seed, but none could be 

 had, and I was informed the seed then being used was brought from New Orleans. 

 The first year no caterpillar was seen, but after the second they commenced to eat the 

 leaves, and had increased to such an extent that when I moved from there the culti- 

 vation of cotton was nearly abandoned." 



The statements of Mr. Plant and of Dr. McTyre are interesting, and are worthy of 

 further investigation. Our consular agents in Egypt and Brazil can inquire into the 

 introduction of the cotton- worm into those countries, and can procure specimens show- 

 ing whether the worm is Aletia, argillacea or an allied native species. 



