28 REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



WashingtoD, Eed River, and Jackson Parishes all sustained great loss. 

 In Mississippi many of the central and southern counties were devas- 

 tated, the more northern part of the State enjoying comparative immu- 

 nity. We quote from the Monthly Eeport of the Department of Ag- 

 riculture for September, 1872, as to the state of affairs in Alabama : 



Onr AnguBt returns from Alabama foreshadowed an extensive visitation of ttie cot- 

 ton caterpillar, which, as our September reports show, was fully and painfully realized. 

 In some places the boll-worm vied with the cotton- worm in its destructive influence. 

 Reports of either or both of these pests come from Macon, Pike, Marengo, Conecuh, 

 Perry, Montgomery, Crenshaw, Russell, Fisk, Calhoun, Chambers, Butler, Autauga, 

 Dallas, Wilcox, and Tuscaloosa Counties. In Crenshaw the fields were denuded of 

 foliage. In Calhoun the crop piospect was reduced 25 per cent, in five days. In 

 Autauga the roads, woods, and wells were full of army and boll worms. In Wilcox 

 the caterpillars, after stripping the cotton-plant of its leaves, attacked the bolls, eat- 

 ing the smaller ones and killing the larger ones by gnawing around them. In Perry 

 the crop was cut down to half an average after August 20. In Conecuh the destruc- 

 tion wa« almost complete, as it also was in Russell. All through the cane-brake region 

 the loss was very severe. Butler, Clark, Wilcox, Dallas, Perry, and Tuscaloosa report 

 a loss of one-half; Pike, Bibb, Hale, Calhoun, and Limestone a loss of one-fourth or 

 over. 



In Florida also the loss was very great; Suwannee, Leon, Taylor, 

 Columbia, Orange, Jackson, and Jefferson Counties all lost from 50 to 

 75 per cent, of their crops, while Clay County lost 33 per cent. Nearly 

 every cotton-growing county in Georgia and South Carolina was visited 

 sooner or later, but the losses were not great compared with those of 

 Florida and Alabama. The worms were also remarkably widespread 

 and abundant in North Carolina, although not particularly injurious. 

 They also appeared in southern Arkansas. 



In the whole history of the Cotton Worm in the United States, from 

 1793 down to the present time, it is doubtful whether 1873 was ever 

 equalled (certainly never exceeded) in the loss occasioned by worms. 

 Throughout the whole extent of the cotton belt hardly a plantation 

 escaped, and in many cases the crop was a total loss. In many localities 

 the caterpillar made its appearance for the first time, and has not since 

 been reported. There must have been a very extensive hibernation of 

 the moths, for as early as the latter part of May the worms had appeared 

 in sufficient numbers to be reported from Florida, southern Georgia, 

 Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas. The appearance of the destructive 

 brood at the end of June was extensively reported, and the localities are 

 of great interest as bearing upon the subject of centers of hiberDation. 

 They are as follows: Decatur County, Georgia ; Liberty, Leon, Jackson, 

 Gadsden, Suwannee, and Columbia Counties, Florida j Clarke, Wilcox, 

 Dallas, Tuscaloosa, Barbour, and Saint Clair Counties, Alabama ; Wil- 

 kinson, Marion, and Jasper Counties, Mississippi; Tangipahoa, West 

 Feliciana, Concordia, Eapides, and Carroll Parishes, Louisiana; and 

 Atascosa, Austin, and Galveston Counties, Texas. 



It will be unnecessary to go through the list of States specifying 



