300 REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



the water directly up iuto the reservoir, which is already mounted, and 

 for this purpose the conimou sheet-metal '•^ Bilge Fumps^^^ used for i)ump- 

 mg out ships and cellars, are cheapest aud ellectual. 



Conceruiug the small hand-machines, knapsack and horseback appa- 

 ratuses for sprinkling liquid by gravitational pressure very little need 

 be added above what has already appeared in the earlier reports. 



Horseback Automatic Sprinklers. — To lessen the limb-labor 

 in carrying hand- sprinklers or knapsack reservoirs it is preferable to 

 mount on horseback with such vessels. This may be done with all 

 kinds, even with common watering-pots. The watering pots and cans 

 are carried thus most commonly where they are extensively used for 

 poisoning Cotton Worms as obtains especially on the Mississippi of 

 Louisana, Yazoo, and southern Arkansas. The cotton grows so high 

 that the hand i)ots could not well be carried high enough except by 

 being mounted. The mules accustomed to tilling the crops will walk 

 between a pair of rows without being guided, hence the rider takes one 

 pot in each hand, poisoning two rows at once. At short intervals he 

 shakes the pot to prevent the poison from separating entirely from the 

 water. This is commonly neglected, and usually the "darkie" who is 

 intrusted with this work does not know or care whether it is mixed 

 or not, whether the nozzle is mostly clogged, or if the spray is directed 

 accurately upon the plants or largely between the rows. The cotton 

 I have seen being poisoned throughout those regions was almost inva- 

 riably treated very imperfectly, often in such a careless way as not to 

 protect the plants from being stripped. When the pots are empty the 

 rider exchanges them for others which are kept filled by men stationed 

 at mixing-barrels which are commonly at both ends of the rows, or at 

 long intervals in the rows. Sometimes the buckets are carried on a 

 yoke-bar across the shoulders, and something of the kind is a necessity 

 where the rows are wide apart. The bar is commonly carried across 

 the shoulders, but may be supported upon the horn of the saddle, or 

 otherwise upon the horse alone. A method rarely employed is the fol- 

 lowing: On either side of the horse is a pole having its lower end at- 

 tached to the lower part of a girth around the horse. The upper end 

 of the pole or bar has a fork supporting the weight of a watering pot, 

 while the whole is sustained from falling by the hand of the same side 

 grasping the handle of the pot, which can so be tilted at will. Almost 

 all the single knapsack cans and hand-sprinklers are susceptible of 

 being joined in pairs to hang one on each side of a horse. 



The following description of the Willie Horseback Sprinkler, from 

 the Department Keport on Cotton Insects (p. 248), will illustrate this 

 subject more fully. 



" The Willie Horsebaclc Simnkler. — Another machine has been in- 

 vented for distributing liquid poisons upon cotton, by Mr. William T. 

 Willie, of Brenham, Tex. ; patent i^o. 158345, dated December 29, 1874. 

 It consists of a frame which may be rigidly secured to a saddle, in a 

 transverse position, there being cans for holding the liquid and pro- 



