[28] 



this pea were adjacent to the cotton-field, I noticed the moths flitting about it in 

 fjreat numbers at night, and in evening twilight they were to be seen passing in 

 swarms, as it were, from the cotton to the peas. I also saw moths of the Boll Worm 

 feeding in the pea patches with lar^e representation. 



Unlike the larva of Aletia that of Heliothis (Boll Worm) appears to bean insect of 

 wide range so far as relates to its natural food. While it feeds upon the bolls of cot- 

 ton with evident relish, thus leading us to call it the Boll Worm, cotton bolls do not 

 appear to be its first choice by any means. It evidently has a decided preference for 

 green corn, upon which it multiplies with greater thrift than upon any other culti- 

 vated crop. I think that, of all the Cotton States, the Boll Worm does most damage 

 to cotton in Texas, growing, I suppose, out of the fact that Texas raises the most 

 corn. In all my observations I found the rule to hold good that where fields of early 

 corn were adjacent to cotton the cotton crop sustained greater damage from Boll 

 Worm than where they were not. This, according to my reasoning, is because the 

 early broods of Boll Worms are advantageously raised upon the early corn, which 

 eventually becoming too dry and hard for their purpose forces the insects to emigrate 

 to the cotton fields for a propagation in later broods. 



ANNOYAIs^CES TO THE COTTON WORM. 



I find it a thing by no means rare for planters to become suddenly carried away 

 with the idea that they have just discovered complete remedies for the Cotton Worm, 

 and for large districts to become considerably electrified over the discovery, when, in 

 truth, the new remedies are nothing more than temporary annoyances thrown in the 

 way of the insect and its work, and consequently worth very little indeed, if any- 

 thing. Among the latest of these may be listed an application to the plants of a 

 solution of 



Common salt. — Soon after reaching Texas I heard that the planters in certain local- 

 ities of the State were effectually saving their crops from worms by sprinkling the 

 plants with " brine," and it even got into the papers and took a general run all over 

 the country, producing quite a commotion. Now, I had no faith whatever in salt as 

 an insecticide, still, as the thing met me at every hand, I concluded to put it to the 

 test. My applications were made with salt in solution ; No. 1 had two ounces of salt 

 to the gallon of water, and No 2 three ounces of salt to the gallon. These solutions 

 were thoroughly sprinkled over plants upon which Cotton Worms were at work in 

 large numbers. Two days after the applications had been made I thought there were 

 fewer worms on the plants sprinkled with No. 1 than before, while there was an un- 

 doubted thinning out under the effect of No. 2. The leaves sprinkled with solution 

 No. 2 were considerably scorched by the salt. No dead worms were found ; indeed 

 the salt had been to them nothing more than a temporary annoyance, causing them 

 to move to the adjacent plants not salted — I saw them going in considerable numbers. 

 And the protection was only for a very brief season ; a few days later, when food be- 

 came more scarce on the adjacent plants, those to which the applications had been 

 made were restocked with worms and speedily stripped of their leaves. 



Saltpeter. — This salt (nitrate of potassa) also got into the papers upon the authority 

 of some planter as a never-failing remedy for the Cotton Worm, tie applied it in so- 

 lution made by dissolving an ounce of the salt to the gallon of water. I put it to 

 careful test, following his directions, and found it, like common salt (chloride of 

 sodium), to be simply a temporary annoyance to the worms, and nothing more. 



Boad dust. — A much traveled road ran east and west through one of the fields in 

 which I was conducting my experiments. Early in the season the cotton on the south 

 side of this road was badly damaged by the Cotton Worm, while for 40 feet along the 

 northern side it had not been much disturbed. Investigation for the cause of the 

 exemption showed it to arise from dust blown over the plants from the road by a pre- 

 vailing wind from the south. The discovery seemed of value as a suggestion of the 

 idea that a dry season, with strong winds blowing dust over the plants, may make 

 an unfavorable condition for the growth and multiplication of the Cotton Worm. It 

 is this possibly that has given rise to the notion that a dry season is less favorable for 

 worms than a wet one. Although dry in Central Texas this season, there were no 

 strong winds, not enough to carry dust from a road save in cases where it had first 

 been stirred up by some other cause, as a passing vehicle, for instance. 



But in the case just mentioned the dust proved only a temporary annoyance to the 

 insects ; later in the season the exempted cotton was entirely stripped by them. 



Open spaces. — It is noticeable that cotton plants growing immediately upon the 

 border of open spaces, as along the sides of roads, or adjacent to crops of lower 

 growth, &c., are exempt from an attack by the worms longer than those growing in 

 other parts of the field. A careful study of the case has convinced me that this is due 

 to the extreme shyness of the moth, which prevents it from stopping and depositing 

 its eggs in such exposed situations. Scare it up in the daytime and it at once darts 

 off to a place of concealment in the thickest growth it can find j and if you watch it 



