THE COTTON PLANT. 



293 



employed to preserve the fruits of liis labor. As 

 it is the will of Providence, he assures himself 

 submission becomes a duty. 



In relation to this matter, it may be asked — 

 is the object at which the erower has so long 

 aimed, unattainable 1 Let the following: state- 

 ment answer. The caterpillars appeared in 

 several parts of the field of John Townsend. of 

 St. John's Colleton, early in August last. The 

 plants ^vere luxuriant in growth, and tender in 

 weed and leaf, and the weather beins? \varm and 

 ratlier moist, was altogether propitious to the 

 spread and multiplying of the worms. By the 

 adoption of prompt and vigorous measures, 

 some of which are new, and a rigid persever- 

 ance in their execution, his crop escaped un- 

 scatlied, while many of his fellow-laborers, who 

 lacked faith in any remedy, suffered greatly. 

 In the attainment of his purpose, the means 

 resorted to by Mr. Townsend were the follow- 

 ing : 



i. His people searched for and killed both 

 the worm and the chrysalis of the first brood. 



2. On the appearance of the second brood, he 

 scattered corn over the field to invite the notice 

 of the birds, and while they depredated on the 

 worms on the tops of the stalks and their upper 

 limbs, the turkeys destroyed the enemy on the 

 lower branches. 



3. When in the aurelia state, the negroes 

 crushed them between their fingers. 



4. Some patches of Cotton, where^e cater- 

 pillars were very thick, and the biriis and tur- 

 keys could not get access to them, were de- 

 stroyed. 



5. The tops of plants, and the ends of all the 

 tender and hixuriant branches, where the egs:s 

 of the butterfly are usually deposited, were cut 

 off. 



By these means, resolutely pursued, although 

 at one time the prospect of checking the depre- 

 dators was almost cheerless, not the .slightest in- 

 jury to the field was sustained.* As the rea- 

 sons for the measures adopted by Mr. Town- 

 send are perhaps apparent, it behoves the plant- 

 er to reflect that, on the first visitt of the cater- 

 pillars,while their number is few, they might be, 

 if not entirely gotten rid of, materially lessened ; 

 that in the pupa state they are easily detected, 

 and of course as easily killed ; and that while 

 early and indefatigable exertions maybe crown- 

 ed with success, delay or tardiness in his op- 

 erations will certainly be fatal. 



In Georgia, the attack of the red bug, a 

 winged insect with a long proboscis, with which 

 it pierces the green pods, extracting the juices 

 of the seed, iuid leaving the capsules blighted 

 and hard, and the Cotton stained of a deep yel- 

 low or red color, are coeval Nvith that of the 

 caterpillar. Althoueh lliis in.sect is an occasional 

 depredator in the fields of this State, yet no ma- 

 terial loss has been sustained by it. This is also 

 true of the apata mnnachys, a species of the 

 scarable, the larva; of which, eating with a re- 



* The experiment cost Mr. Townsend 2i acres of 

 Cotton, about \o bushels of corn, and the work of all 

 his people for about live days. This gentleman was 

 roused to unusual action by the reflection, I'ounilcd 

 on analoprical reasoning, that, of one moth of feeble 

 wing and tender body, wliich a vigilant eye niiglit 

 discover and destroy, the progeny in six weeks 

 amount to at least twenty-six millions of worms. 



t This is communicated to the planter through the 

 sense of smell. When the Chenille appears, a very 

 fragrant odor issues from the field, which is not pos- 

 sessed bv the wonn itself, or the plant separately. 

 (593) 



volving motion, penetrate to the wood and pith 

 of the Cotton-stalk. Red bugs, that prey on the 

 roots and leaves of Cotton, usually early in May, 

 though their appearance is not uncommon m 

 April, are certainly becoming more destructive 

 and extensive in their visits. By the latter, the 

 growth of the plant is in general only checked; 

 but the former,* by arresting the ascent and cir- 

 culation of the sap, generates a disease, which, 

 if it do not destroy, renders the plants compara- 

 tively barren. The grub or cut-worm, if the 

 spring be cold, and east winds prevail, is a 

 troublesome, but not a formidable, enemj'. The 

 blast or blight is now, perhaps, the most com- 

 mon of all the disea.sesto which Cotton is liable. 

 Its tendency is to check or destroy the vegetative 

 powers of the plants. The causes of blast are 

 threefold : — excess of vegetation, con-espond- 

 ing with plethora in animals; exhaustion of ve- 

 getation, terminating in a state similar to gan- 

 grene ; and wetness at the roots. When the 

 first takes place, the Cotton is pronounced " flag- 

 gy ; " the appearance of the second is denomi- 

 nated " canker," of which there arc two kinds : 

 in one the plant is stripped of its fruit and 

 foliage, except a few green buds on the top ; in 

 the other, the leaves wither — the stalks assume 

 a dark hue, and the pods drop, save those near- 

 ly full grown, which become hard and black, 

 though they produce Cotton. In relation to the 

 third cause, as long as the roots are saturated 

 with water, the procreativc energies of the 

 plants are arrested, and all the fruit previously 

 formed quickly disappears. While the manur- 

 ing system, where judiciously practiced, has al- 

 most effectually removed one cause, and the 

 main one, arising from vegetative exhaustion,! 

 it has palpably increased the plethoric habits of 

 the plant, and multiplied the number of its di- 

 seases, most of which, there are good grounds 

 for believing, is animal. It should, hence, be 

 the paramount duty of the grower, unless an an- 

 tidote, like salt for instance, be applied, to use 

 sparingly those manures, which funiish a ma- 

 trix for generating or nourishing the insect 

 brood. 



It has been well said by a judicious observer^ 

 that, of all the productions to which labor is ap- 

 plicable, the Cotton plant, more particularly the 

 species grown on the Sea-Islands, is the most 

 precarious. In its first stage it is attacked by 

 the grub ; it is devoured by bugs in the .second; 

 and by caterpillars in the third ; it is often 

 withered by the wind in its infancy, and by the 

 blight in maturer age -, and when the grower, 

 excited by all the causes which hope so kindly 

 presents to his ardent imagination, is about to reap 

 the golden harvest, an equinoctial gale, or a few 

 saturating showers, deprive him at once of the 

 fruits of Ills labors, and bid him to reiissume the 

 toils and vexations of his vocation. And here it 

 may pertinently be added, that " when the pro- 

 duce is raised, at an expense to the cultivator 

 which perhaps is not equaled in any other pur- 

 suit — an expense too that is permanent and cer- 



* Wherever salt is applied on the listing, at the rate 

 of one pint to the task-row, (105 feet.) it is confidently 

 believed that the bug will not appear. 



t .Sometimes on poor high land, assisted with any 

 matter, salt-mud especially, that brings the plant rap- 

 idly to maturity, this disease will apjjear. if a drouth 

 be succeeded by heavy rains in August, To prevent 

 this, do not iise mud alone, but in connection with 

 some stimulating alim.ent. Such lands should not be 

 planted until the last of April. 



X Bryan Edwards in his History of the West Indies. 



