DIFFERENT PREVENTIVE MEASURES. 121 



This same idea forcibly occurred to ns on our first visit to the South ; 

 but upon suggesting it and urging it to experienced planters, they in- 

 variably replied that the cotton i^lant forms such a long tap-root and is 

 so very sensitive to removal or transplanting, that the method becomes 

 impracticable. The only way in which cotton plants could be success- 

 fully transplanted would be from small pots, and such mode is precluded 

 on account of the expense, though paper bags, it seems to us, might in 

 many instances be successfully used for this purpose. Careful and fre- 

 quent cultivation, which, moreover, has the tendency to disturb and 

 knock off the worms, will materially assist in producing a crop before 

 these appear in force j and such well cultivated fields, while they are 

 subject to the attacks very early in the season, will, at the critical pe- 

 riod, be least injured. 



Topping the cotton is recommended and practiced in some sections to 

 hasten maturity, and while it will no doubt help to produce the desired 

 effect, the labor necessary would hardly be repaid by the success, since 

 it includes the loss of the top crop. Where done in order to destroy the 

 eggs of Aletia, the labor is more or less wasted, as only a small propor- 

 tion of the eggs are laid on the top leaves during the season when the 

 chief injury is being done. 



Every other means that will give the cotton plant an early and 

 vigorous growth, e. ^., rich manuring, or soaking the seed, before plant- 

 ing, in sulphuric acid, ought to be employed, and will assist in prevent- 

 ing the ravages of the pest. 



Taking the opposite view. Dr. Phares has suggested that by sys- 

 tematically deferring the planting of cotton till the end of May, or until 

 all the hibernating moths had perished without finding food for their 

 issue, and then planting some early-maturing variety, we might entirely 

 prevent the injuries of the worm. This would be an excellent sugges- 

 tion could the i)lanter know beforehand that it would be necessary, 

 and were there not decided advantages, as just set forth, in getting 

 early maturity. 



While it has been believed that the long-staple cotton is more injured 

 by the worm than the short staple, yet the belief is by no means general, 

 and there seems to exist no variety of cotton which, for its comparitive 

 immunity from the attacks of the worm, deserves to be cultivated in 

 preference to other varieties ; nor have we at present any reasonable 

 hope of producing, by careful selection of seed, a variety which is less 

 subject to injury, a process which, if possible, would require many years 

 to bring forth any noticeable results. 



For several years past a paragraph has been going the rounds of the 

 newspapers of the South, to the effect that a planter in Texas had pro- 

 duced, after many years of experiment, a " worm-proof cotton," by 

 hybridizing cotton with a certain weed, and that he was willing to sell 

 his secret to the Government for a handsome sum. We have not seen 

 this '' worm-proof cotton," nor can we learn that any trustworthy planter 



