ROT IN COTTON. 181 



ing, and an improvement in name, we soon had a catalogue 

 of names, such as Alvarado, Brown, Pitt, Willow, Hogan, 

 Sugar Loaf, Silk, Vick's 100-seed, and a host of others. 

 Those that succeeded best in giving a big name, and puffing 

 most, bore off the palm, and wore the title of Colonel, and 

 even went farther for instance, Gen. Mitchell's Prolific Pome- 

 granate, &c. Each of the above varieties succeeded very 

 well for two or three years, and then sank below par. All 

 the notoriety was given to the variety, when half was entitled 

 to a change of latitude. The different varieties have been 

 mixed up so, until it has become corrupted, and the corruption 

 has become epidemic. 



We are now where our forefathers were with the old black 

 seed. Many of our old standard planters pronounced it iden- 

 tically the old black rot. I have been a close observer of the 

 disease since it made its appearance. It seems to be worse 

 when we have a warm, cloudy spell of weather, of five or six 

 days. Apparently all the bolls will mildew and rot in a few 

 days. One would suppose that it was atmospheric. Not so. 

 We had just such weather ten years ago, when the rot was 

 not known. 



I see a certain M.D. has sent some beetles and diseased 

 bolls to the Smithsonian Institution for examination. I cannot 

 reconcile myself that it is the effect of insects. If it was, we 

 would have had an immense quantity of it during the reign of 

 the army-worm in 1846, and the boll-worm since. They 

 stripped the foliage, cut the rind from the boll, punctured the 

 pods, and even embedded themselves into them, yet they 

 opened beautifully, and the disease was not known. 



A correspondent of the American Cotton Planter says it is 

 caused from the want of new, healthy, and sufficient quantity 

 of pabulum. I must beg to differ with him. Some of our old 

 hills have suffered these many long years for a want of a suf- 



