162 COTTON PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



up, they can remain tinder the cotton ridge, and have sufficient 

 time to breed an army before the young plant can possibly 

 grow out of their reach. As a proof of this position, the few 

 discovered in my field were of very small size. My cotton 

 crop was planted between the 5th and 15th of April, consider- 

 ably later than I usually plant. I do not, however, presume 

 that the late planting could have had much to do with it, 

 because the cut-worm is said to be worse upon the replant 

 of May than the older stalks. I leave practical men to draw 

 their own conclusions ; still I must cling to mine, that it was 

 the late ridging up of my land which saved me from the cut- 

 worm this year. 



If the publication of these hints, hastily thrown together, 

 will have a tendency to relieve the cotton planter, in 1851, 

 from the ravages of this vile enemy of our great staple, I shall 

 be gratified ; and you, Mr. Editor, will have done the State 

 some service, for the lot of the Louisiana cotton grower is a 

 hard one, God knows. 



Respectfully, 



D. J. FLUKER. 



SECTION V. DESTROYING THE COTTON-MOTH. 



MR. EDITOR : After having nearly lost three or four crops 

 of cotton by the ravages of the worm, men who heretofore 

 have talked as if they believed that the constitution of this 

 world was something like a system of optionism, or that the 

 farmer had nothing to do but plant, and keep the grass and 

 weeds down, and he had done all that was in his power, now 

 talk on the* subject as though they believed that the Creator 

 had bestowed on them faculties to observe and trace cause and 

 effect. They manifest not only a strong spirit toward improv- 



