286 COTTON PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



appearance, I think, for the first time, in 1793, and destroyed 

 the crop. I remember Major Butler made but eighteen bales 

 of cotton from 400 acres. There was also a red bug, a winged 

 insect with a long proboscis, with which it pierced the green 

 pods, extracting the juices of the seed and leaving the pod 

 blighted and hard, and the cotton stained of a deep yellow or 

 red color. In new lands this insect was very destructive, as 

 it had been in the Bahamas ; and as it found protection against 

 the cold in the bark and roots of the trees, it was apt to remain 

 for years, injuring the quality and reducing the quantity of 

 the cotton. 



16th. The caterpillar was first seen to do injury, as I think, 

 in 1793 : the injury was unusual, the destruction complete, so 

 as scarcely to leave seed. The destructive caterpillar is not 

 the same that feeds upon the indigo ; the green caterpillar I 

 have frequently known to riddle the leaves to a great extent, 

 without great ultimate injury ; but it is the black and yellow 

 striped caterpillar that in a few days, say from four to five, 

 will spread over hundreds of acres, not leaving a green leaf, 

 and finally nothing but the full grown pods, which they some- 

 times break and injure. 



17th. The black seed cotton had been shipped for several 

 years, before they began to grow in the interior the green seed 

 for sale. 



I remain, dear sir, respectfully, your ob't. serv't., 



"THOMAS SPALDING 



SECTION III. NATHAN LYONS. 



MR. EDITOR : Can you or any of your correspondents give 

 the public any account of Nathan Lyons 1 His name seems 

 to be almost forgotten ; yet, if tradition can be relied on, few 

 men have done more for the South since it is to him, it seems, 



