94 COTTON CULTURE. 



cut down and throw towards the army two or three rows 

 of cotton. Then let the plows, hoes and spades, follow 

 rapidly, and cut the ditch as soon as possible. Sometimes 

 it may be necessary to keep the plows in constant motion 

 in order to bury the advance guard and give time to com- 

 plete the ditch. _ Another precaution, which many employ, 

 is to scatter straw or dry sedge grass in the ditch and re- 

 new it when burned, so as to keep a bed of hot cinders, 

 or a line of fire in front of the threatened field. As the 

 whole farm is in danger, as well as the cotton field, the 

 Army-worm devouring corn, grass, gardens, and stacks of 

 fodder that lie in Ms path, an attack of this character im- 

 poses the most strenuous and constant activity on every 

 one that can lift a finger in the contest. A patrol with 

 the plow and spade, should be kept up along the line of 

 the ditch. 



The Army-worm hardly needs a formal description. No 

 other reptile moves, as he does, in such enormous force. 

 He is of about the length of the little finger of a man, and 

 nearly as thick, yellowish in color, with a single dark 

 stripe along the back. He travels by bending up the back 

 and drawing the last feet nearly up to the head, then 

 throwing the head forward, thus measuring his length 

 from one point to another. 



There appears to be no bird, but the blue jay, that will 

 eat it. Hens and turkeys look upon it with curiosity or 

 fear. 



THE BOLL-WOEM. 



Unlike the caterpillar and the Army-worm, the Boll- 

 worm is an annual pest of the cotton plant, hybernating 

 in the ground, and commencing depredations as soon as 

 the young forms begin to swell. He never destroys a 

 crop as they do, but pierces three, four, or sometimes ten 

 bolls, nearly or quite killing them, at length penetrat- 



