Corn, Cotton. 277 



Treatment. Effectual remedies for corn smut have not yet 

 been found. Some claim that soaking the seed in a fungicide 

 or in hot water may assist in preventing the trouble, but so 

 many cases are on record in which such treatments were of 

 practically no value that they cannot be recommended. 



INSECT ENEMIES. 



Corn is subject to the attacks of a great many forms of 

 insects. As these cannot, however, be successfully treated by 

 means of the remedies particularly treated of in this work, they 

 will not be individually described. Those insects which attack 

 the roots of corn, generally appear when the crop has been 

 planted upon sod land, and as a rule the older the sod the more 

 numerous are the insects. Those which work upon the parts 

 of the growing plants above ground are perhaps best treated by 

 collecting them by hand and then destroying them. No effec- 

 tive remedies are known for several of the pests. If the grain 

 is to be stored it will also be exposed to the attacks of certain 

 insects. These may be destroyed very easily by the use of the 

 bisulphide of carbon ; but the corn must first be placed in a 

 tight receptacle. 



COTTON. 

 FUNGOUS DISEASES. 



Many fungous diseases of cotton have been described, 1 but 

 apparently no good remedies have yet been discovered. 



INSECT ENEMIES. 



Leaf-worm; Cotton-worm; Cotton-caterpillar (Aletia argil- 

 lacea, Iliibn.). Description. The adult insect is a grayish- 

 brown moth whose wings expand nearly one and one-half 

 inches. The slender green worms or caterpillars begin to 

 appear in early spring, the eggs having been laid upon the 

 under side of the young cotton leaves. The number of broods 

 varies from three to six, so the transformations take place 

 rapidly. 



Treatment. The arsenites are probably the best insecticides 

 to use in the destruction of this insect. They may be applied 



1 Atkinson, Ala. Ayrie. Exp. Sta. 1892, Dec. Bulls. 36 and 41. 



