122 REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



has ever seen it, and it is safe to put down this so-called important in- 

 vention either as an illusion or as an imposition and humbug. 



There are several other points in the cultivation of cotton which, 

 though of minor importance, should be borne in mind in this connection. 

 The frequent exemption of small fields that are separated from larger 

 •nes, or surrounded by some other crops, suggests the advisability of 

 lireaking up the very large and continuous cotton fields, and the adop- 

 tion of a more diversified agriculture. It will be well, also, to avoid 

 planting cotton in those spots where the worms have been known to 

 first reappear from year to year. The method of interspersing the cot- 

 ton with corn, often practiced in the South, may well be recommended 

 from an economical standpoint ; but less so from the entomological 

 view, for while it may have some effect in lessening the Cotton Worm, 

 there is not yet sufficient confirmation of the fact, and the custom 

 doubtless helps to increase the injury from the Boll Worm. 



There exists a wide-spread belief among planters that by surrounding 

 cotton fields with certain plants, or even by planting a few such plants 

 between the cotton rows, the latter will be protected from the ravages 

 of the worm. This belief is evidently based on the idea that the parent 

 moth is prevented from ovipositing on such cotton by the odor emitted 

 by such plants. 



Jute (Corcliorus ca/psularis) is the most noted and familiar of these 

 *^ protecting" plants. When and where the belief of the protecting 

 power of the jute originated is difficult to prove at the present time, and 

 the following paragraph on the subject from the New Orleans Times of 

 December 25, 1873, is evidently written after this belief had already 

 made much headway : ^ 



It remains for ns to notice the further important fact that the culture of jute in this 

 State is likely to prove the death of the Cotton Worm. On this point we have the 

 experience of Mr. Emile Lefranc, who assures us that neither flies nor butterflies ever 

 stop in the jute plant. It appears the plant gives out an odor which drives them 

 away, and the consequence is that no caterpillar will appear on the plantation where 

 jute is grown. Desiring to verify this important and valuable discovery, the "Ramie 

 Planting Association" last season planted three several different fields of cotton, and 

 surrounded them with a jute growth belt. No leaf, no flower, no boll was destroyed. 

 The fields were entirely free from the caterpillar, while other cotton fields on adjacent 

 plantations were invaded by the voracious insects. This statement has been verified 

 by many gentlemen of New Orleans. In the present precarious condition of cotton 

 culture, the fact we have mentioned is assuredly worthy of the earnest attention of 

 all intelligent planters. 



How much truth there is in the verification of this " valuable discov- 

 ery "" we do not know, but no subsequent experiments seem to have been 

 made and recorded, and the more recent writers on the subject, and 

 especially Mr. J. 0. Waldo, of Kew Orleans, who advocates this pre- 

 ventive measure, seem to draw only from the source quoted above. Jute 

 is planted but very little in the South at the present time, and it was 

 not until 1880 that one of the observers in the field, Dr. Anderson^ had 



