INTRODUCTION. XXVIl 



of the State. It seems to come from Decatur to Baker, Calhoun, Dougherty, and Lee 

 Counties. According to present testimony its appearance is not simultaneous over 

 this section of the State, the southern portions being first visited. 



"From testimony collected by myself in Athens, on the occasion of the meeting of 

 the Agricultural S .ciety of Georgia, the following counties are visited by the Cotton 

 Worm every year, though the exact line is not, according to testimony, the same : 

 Calhoun, Decatur, Dougherty, Lee, Mason, Schley, Taylor. 



" Counties in which the worm is not noticed every year are : Burke, Clarke, Fulton, 

 Greene, Hancock, Jones, Monroe, Putnam, I^chmond. 



" It will be seen that the central portion of the State is less subject to the devasta- 

 tion of the Cotton Worm than the southwestern and western. * * * 



"I received in November, 1878, fresh instructions from you to proceed to Georgia 

 for the purpose of ascertaining whether I could find eggs from the last moths on any 

 portion of the plant, and any facts bearing on the hibernation of the moth. On the 

 plantations near Savannah I found that the worm was first noticed the current year 

 on September 4. I found a large number of the chrysalides yet on the plant on No- 

 vember 10 to 25. The nights were frosty and the leaf withered and scant. In places 

 sheltered by trees the leaf was still green, and here I found (November 16) a few cater- 

 pillars not yet spun up. A large number of the chrysalides were empty ; about 40 

 per cent, contained parasites. Less than a quarter of the chrysalides contained the 

 undeveloped moth. 



"Under your instructions I have visited the Georgia sea-islands during the end 

 of November and beginning of December. I found that the worm had appeared this 

 year in September as on the mainland, but later in the month. It had, also, not 

 spread, and had attacked certain corners of the fields, where I now found the chrysa- 

 lides. None of these contained undeveloped moths, but they were either empty or 

 ichneumouized. There had been no second brood of worms on the islands, according 

 to testimony collected by me, and which Avas borne out by my own observations. 



"As the result of my late observations I may say that the fact is confirmed that 

 the Cotton Worm passes the winter, when it survives at all, as a moth, and that the 

 last fall worms do not leave the plant to web up. The full history of the worm in 

 Georgia can be made out when the country is fully explored in the spring and before 

 the first appearance of the worm in numbers. It will then be made clear where the 

 first large numbers of the worm come from; whether they are the results of fresh in- 

 vasions of the moth or the product of a first generation from eggs of hibernating indi- 

 viduals. 



"Under your intelligent supervision of the inquiry, and with the facilities which 

 you possess from different sections of the South, I have no doubt that this important 

 matter will receive final and full elucidation. 



" My thanks are due to Mr. Z. Bauers, of Saint Catharine's Island ; Dr. W. S. Law- 

 ton, of Savannah; Messrs. T. G. Holt, of Macon, Ga.; J. E. Redwine, Hull County, 

 Georgia; E. C. Grier, Griswoldville, Jones County; J. Pinckney Thomas, Wayne's 

 Bluff, Burke County, Georgia; State Geologist George A. Little, of Atlanta, Ga., and 

 others, who have assisted me in my work. 

 " Yours, respectfully, 



"A. R. GROTE. 



'' Prof. C. V. Riley, 



'^Entomologist, Department Agriculture^ 



Starting south myself the latter part of August, I passed through Tennessee to 

 Mitchell County, in Southwest Georgia, and thence, during September, through the 

 cotton sections of the southeastern part of that State and of the Carolinas and Vir- 

 ginia. I was at this time made painfully aware of the hindering effects of the yellow 

 fever. One can scarcely conceive of the panic and excitement that prevailed, even in 

 regions where there was little or no danger. But a few weeks before in the thicker 

 cotton counties of Alabama and Georgia the prevailing topic of conversation, as I 

 learned, was the work of the Cotton Worm. At the time of my visit its injuries were 

 forgotten in the all-absorbing subject of the epidemic. Cotton fields were neglected, 

 and in sight of acres of stripped and spindling stalks one heard but the universal 

 refrain — yellow fever, yellow fever. It seriously interfered with my own plans, and 

 obliged me to avoid the very Mississippi cotton fields which I desired most to visit. 



Notwithstanding this serious drawback to the present year's operations, much that 

 is valuable and important has been learned. * * * 



In fact, our chief efforts during this first year as United States Ento- 

 mologist were devoted to this investigation, and a large amount of mate- 



