COTTON 



It is often supposed' by the agricultural population that 

 the prevalence of fogs and cold weather increase the 

 numbers of boll worm. This is only indirectly the case, 

 as we find that the fogs and mists retard the maturity of 

 bolls and thereby assist the development of boll worms, 

 in addition, to which a condition of subdued light is pro- 

 duced, which is favourable to the awakening of activity 

 in the feeding larvae; bright sunlight being a strong 

 adverse condition. 



Effect produced by an Attack. The effect of an attack 

 of Earias boll worm upon the cotton plants is evidenced 

 in several ways. In the earlier generations, when no boll 

 flowers or buds are present on the cotton plant, the young 

 worm attacks the terminal shoots of the plant, each worm 

 tunnelling into the succulent shoot near the top and 

 eating a passage down the centre of the stem until it 

 reaches the harder and more woody parts, when it leaves 

 the stem to attack a fresh shoot. A terminal shoot which 

 has been attacked in the manner described withers and 

 soon changes to a dark colour, and if cut off at a point 

 a little below the withered portion the living boll worm 

 may be found within the stem. 



As soon as the buds appear upon the plants the worms 

 attack them in preference to the shoots, and the presence 

 of a boll worm in a bud is manifested by what is termed 

 " flaring " in the United States, where a similar result 

 is produced by the boll weevil, an insect, fortunately for 

 the present confined to the Southern cotton states in 

 America. The appearance of a flared bud differs from 

 that of a healthy one in that, in the flared one, the 

 involucres or leaf-like coverings of the bud open widely, 

 exposing the bud, which in a normal case would be hidden 

 by them. In some cases the flared bud falls to the 

 ground, its vitality being injured by the growing connec- 

 tion with the stem becoming interrupted or atrophied. 

 Although the bud has been destroyed in this way the 

 boll worm rarely suffers by the fall, leaving the fallen bud 

 to attack a fresh one. 



Boll worms are frequently found in the flowers, feeding 

 upon the pollen and reproductive organs, thereby render- 

 ing the flowers themselves sterile. 



When attacking a boll the minute larva lives for the 



