66 COTTON CULTURE. 



look carefully through the rows of his crop for the leaves 

 on which the eggs have been laid. 



With a little practice, the eye becomes quick at detect- 

 ing the leaves that have been cut and bent over. These 

 should be carefully gleaned, put into the cotton bags, and 

 burned. 



Some have succeeded in protecting a crop by catching 

 the moths in plates, half filled with a mixture of molasses, 

 vinegar, and cobalt, and exposed at numerous points over 

 the field. 



Every preventive and each mode of attacking the enemy 

 should be employed. Some have destroyed a great num- 

 ber of these pests by building small fires in different parts 

 of the field, into which they plunge and perish. Others 

 plant white flags about the field, upon which it is thought 

 the fly deposits its eggs. 



SEPTEMBER. 



If your crop was rescued from the devourers, nothing 

 now remains but to press the picking as actively as pos- 

 sible. The best cotton is gathered in September and 

 October. Provide every facility for your hands, good bags 

 with open mouths, baskets, and a scale or balance that 

 weighs rapidly. Give hot coffee in the morning, especially 

 if you are on low land, encourage fast picking by corres- 

 ponding wages, and manage to keep them out of the night 

 air. You can ill afford to have hands out of the field now 

 with chill and fever. 



OCTOBER. 



The best month for picking. It is a remarkable set of 

 hands that can average two hundred pounds all around, 

 yet, among a force of twenty pickers, some will always 

 bring in more than that in open cotton. 



