INFLIiENCE OF WET WEATHER ON ALETIA. 83 



fied in such low places where the cotton is rank. These places are also 

 just those where the dews are heaviest, and the facts which follow render 

 it quite certain that moisture aids both the hatching and the develop- 

 ment of the worm. Another suggestion may here be made that also 

 helps in the explanation; the natural enemies of the worm, especially 

 the ants, are less abundant in low, wet land than in that which is higher 

 and drier. They will, therefore, be less efficient in destroying the young 

 worms, which for this reason will stand a better chance of developing 

 unchecked. 



Influence of wet weather. 



In the foregoing pages we have seen that the insect, both in its larvat 

 and perfect states, has a predilection for low, moist ground, where the 

 cotton is luxuriant. We may safely infer, therefore, that the meteoro- 

 logical influences that produce over large areas the conditions thus 

 described for limited areas will prove favorable to the development of 

 the worms ; and, indeed, it is the uniform testimony and experience of 

 all who have closely observed the facts that wet weather is favorable 

 and dry weather unfavorable thereto. This appears not only from the 

 testimony of observers and of correspondents of the Department and of. 

 the Commission in this country, but also seems to be the case in South 

 America. The United States consul at Pernambuco, for instance, says 

 "it comes and disappears with the rain." A study of the past history 

 also reveals the same fact, and in no instance more strikingly than in 

 the consideration of the year 1873. As indicating this in a most forci- 

 ble way we introduce again the tabulated statement of correspondents 

 of the Department showing the relative influence of each cause of dam- 

 age. Eain and worms go hand in hand. 



Mrth Carolina,— Rmns, frost, worms. 

 South Carolina. — Rains, frost, \7orms. 



Georgia. — Worms, more than all other causes combined ; rains, firost, drought, high 

 winds. 

 Florida. — Storms of rain, worms. 

 Alabama. — Worms, rains, frost. 

 Mississippi. — ^Worms, spring rains, drought, frost. 

 Louisiana.— Worms, rains, high winds. 



Texas. — Worms, rains, drought, frost, had gins and inexperienced ginners. 

 ArJcansas. — Eains, worms, drought, frost. 

 Tennessee. — Drought, frost, rains, plant-lice, a cold and wet spring. 



We have not to deal here with those severe rains, especially those 

 accompanied by gales of wind, such as occur occasionally in the South, 

 especially during the autumnal equinox, which have been known to kill 

 the worms, beating them down and sweeping them into windrows and 

 heaps, such as was the case in Mississippi in 1825 j in Matagorda 

 County, Texas, in September, 1875, and in the Bahamas in 1866 ; for in 

 these and similar cases the destruction of the worm is always accom- 

 panied by the utter loss of the crop. 



