292 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



made by tlie planter. A more irksome duty, 

 requiting, too, much experience and skill, is 

 sjeldom performed. But, in surmounting one 

 difficulty; another of his own creation awaits 

 4;im. This is imputed to the ill-judged manner 

 ef disposing of the seed, which is peculiarly 

 ^ liable to run into varieties. This last considera- 

 ? tion readily accounts for the confounding of all 

 -J distinctions by botanists, and their disagreement 

 as to the number of varieties of the gossypium. 

 Linna'us reckons five, and other ^vriters seve- 

 rally eight, eleven, thirteen, thirty-four, forty, 

 and even one hundred kinds. The varieties are 

 still more difficult to be enumerated in conse- 

 quence of the influence of climate, soil, manure, 

 cultivation, and intermixture of seeds. These 

 causes not only tend to their multiplication, but 

 to change the longevity of the plant. The shrub 

 cultivated as an annual in one countx'y, becomes 

 perennial in another. The arboreum continues 

 for five or six years in the West Indies — here 

 it is an annual. In, probably, everj' acre of a 

 Cotton-field several kinds of the gossypium may 

 be found. The diflerences are sometimes mi- 

 nute, but even without inspection by a botanical 

 eye, they may be detected. The select seed of 

 the gi-ower, by the usual practice, is carefully 

 depo.sited in choice ground, which, if there be 

 many acres, lies in many instances immediately 

 contiguous to his main crop — .sometimes a nar- 

 vo\v path alone sextarating them. Hence the 

 pollen of the larger field impregnates the pistils 

 of the smaller field. In this way the peculiar 

 character of the wool is lost, and another variety 

 springs up. The operation of ihe farina fecv n- 

 ■dans of plants no longer rests on suraiise and 

 conjecture. By the discoveiy and observation 

 of .John Bywater, of Liverpool, on animalcnlee 

 infusoriie, and on the phjsiology of plants, we 

 are furnished with some curious and interesting 

 information on this subject. His examinations 

 era to show that the small capsules of thc/V/r/wa 

 Jcciindans given out when in contact with wa- 

 ter, an abundance of animalcules, which are 

 supposed to be the mysterious agents by which 

 vegetable secretions are carried forward. The 

 obvious expedient, then, is the rearing of varie- 

 ties of the same species at such distances as to 

 prevent the intennixture of pollen of the i)lants. 

 This is successfully done in Scotland with gar- 

 den seeds, which, it is asserted, may always be 

 found pure in certain sections of that countrj-. 

 If the size of the plantation admit, unless .some 

 such scheme be adopted, specific differences 

 cannot be maintained, and the labor of the plant- 

 er will be ])ermanent. 



The length to which this memoir has already 

 been extended, forbids the introduction of many 

 topics, w-hich otherwise would invite a pas.sing 

 notice. A few remarks, therefore, only on one 



. • cr two collateral points will now be submitted. 



\j 'i^-short time after Cotton, as a crop, had been 

 successfully cultivated in this State, it was at- 

 tacked by some of its natural foes. In Georgia, 

 the caterpillar, noctua xylina, or cotton-moth, 

 made its appearance as earlj- as 1793.* Seven 

 years afterwards, they commenced the work of 

 devastation in South Carolina.t In 1804, the 

 crops, which would have been devoured by 

 them, were, with the enemy, effectually destroy- 



' •' In that year," says Mr. Spalding. " the destruc- 

 tion was complete. From Mnjor Eutler'a field of 

 400 acrc'iJ. only 18 baas were made " 



t This is accounted for by the ftict that Long Cot- 

 ton, as a crop, was not generally grown in South 

 Carolina until 1798. 



[rm) 



ed by the hun-icane of that year. In 1825;* the 

 visit of the worm was renewed, and its ravages 

 were univei-sal and complete. In 1827, '29, '.33, 

 34, '40, '41 and '43, the lower parishes t gene- 

 rallj', or particular locations, suffered greatly by 

 its depredations. 



That the Cotton-moth frequently survives the 

 frosty season is nearly certain. An exaiiiinatiou 

 of that neighboring woods, especially after a 

 mild winter, has often been successfully made 

 for that purpose. They were seen by the writer 

 in May la.st at the edge of a strip of piue.s, with- 

 in a few yards of a Cotton field. In the winter 

 of 1825, Benjamin Reynolds of St. John's Colle- 

 ton, decea.sed, found them in the woods, princi- 

 pally on the cedar bush, encased alive in their 

 cover, impervious to water, and secured to a 

 twig by a thread. The pupse, wrapped in Cot- 

 ton-leaves, from their bleak exposure, invariably 

 die on the approach of cold weather. 



The injury that has often been committed by 

 the caterpillar is most incredible. In one v\-eek 

 they have denuded of its foliage every stalk in 

 the largest field. The Cotton plant of Guiana 

 was very subject to the attack of the Chenille, 

 as the caterpillar is there called. In the Baha- 

 mas, between March and September, 1788, no 

 less than 280 tons of Cotton on a moderate scale 

 were devoured by this wonn.J Among the 

 causes of failure of the crop in that quarter, as 

 ascertained by answers of the most intelligent 

 and experienced planters to questions proposed 

 by the House of Assembly, the most prominent 

 is the destruction by the Chenille. The same 

 cause produced the abandonment of the gossy- 

 pium culture in several of the West India 

 Islands.6 



It will be perceived, from what has been 

 said, that the attack of the caterpillar in this 

 country is not annual. This of itself is satisfac- 

 tory evidence, that the " evolution of the larvae, 

 and the transformations and death of the insect, 

 or the appearance and disappearance of the 

 Chenille, are regulated or influenced by particu- 

 lar states of the atmosphere ; " and probably, as 

 close observers have remarked, by " the phases 

 or changes of the moon." Every effort which 

 the most scrutinizing and active minds have 

 hitherto suggested to prevent their propagation, 

 or to render innoxious the caree*- of inese insa- 

 tiable depredators, has uttet-'y iaiied. From this 

 consideration, added to their great tenacity of 

 life and extraordinary fecundity, it is supposed 

 that the ordinary means of aSccting either of 

 tho.se desirable ends will never succeed. The 

 caterpillar, after being plunged into spirits of 

 turpentine or corrosive sublimate, is as ready 

 for his all-day meal, as though it had been im- 

 mersed in pure water. If the section of the 

 field in which the pupse only are seen, be burnt, 

 the progress of the worm, as experience testi- 

 fies, wUl scarcely be impeded. Lime will 

 quickly produce death, and so will oil rubbed 

 on tlie abdomen, but how can these be used ef- 

 ficaciously on the larvfe, when from five to ten 

 hundred on a jjlant are not nnfrequently seen? 

 Or can the pupge, reposing in their glutinous 

 cells, be affected by any external application? 

 In this way the planter reasons, and when the 

 enemy appears, no means whatever are now 



* Between 1804 and 1825 their depredations were 

 only occasional, and then confined to particular fields. 



tThe caterpillar is seldom seen is the upper pa- 

 rishes. 



t Edwards"s West Indies. 



§ Edwards's West Indies. 



