APPE]¥DIX VI 



EEPOET OF JUDGE WILLIAM J. JOKES. 



ViRGixiA Point, Tex., Octoher 5, 1880. 



Sir : At no time, from the commeucement of active investigations and study of the 

 origin, habits, and destructive tendencies of AJetia xylina, have so many obstacles pre- 

 sented themselves to a full and exhaustive research into the most interestiDg facts 

 growing out of the question, so rery imx^ortant to success of cotton growth in the 

 South. During the season just passed, through the whole length and breadth of 

 the land where cotton has been cultivated (except in a few favored localities), com- 

 mencing early in July and not yet terminated, there has been a continuous fall of 

 rain, unprecedented in the history of cultivation, destroying a very large portion of the 

 crop, as yet undetermined and impossible of accurate estimate, till the remainder is 

 secured and ginned and marketed. As far as my observation and memory date back, 

 I have discovered in this year a more anomalous exhibit in the movement of this 

 fugacious enemy of the cotton than before remarked in a period of forty years past. 

 Upon a considerable number of plantations, which I was enabled to visit in despite 

 of the frustrating conditions of the weather, I observed what I had never before 

 witnessed, tiie obvious fact that in almost every field, where .the fly had deposited its 

 eggs, were plainly to be seen sections of the crop upon which no worms had appeared, 

 although only separated by a corn-patch or turn row, while the remainder of the 

 field was entirely riddled by these truculent depredators. 



In looking for some latent cause for these special exemptions, I found in almost 

 every instance that the unmolested spots were the early and well-cultivated portions 

 of every field, clearly manifesting an evident instinct in the mother moth for the 

 selection of those plants in the most succulent state and offering suitable sustenance 

 for their larvce. I found that the same views prevailed among the planters themselves 

 as to my observations and the theory upon which they were based. 



To some of the questions embraced in your Circular No. 7 * very few planters were 

 prepared to give any answer clear to themselves or satisfactory to you. To Nos. 1 

 and 2 I failed to obtain any definite information. To the 3d a large number an- 

 swered they had remarked no special difterence. They were reminded that in 1867 

 and 1869, when the ground was frozen about the middle of March of each year, the fly 

 had appeared early and the worms were very destructive. To the 4th the replies 

 were uniform, that the worms appeared earlier and were more numerous and destruc- 

 tive in wet than dry weather. To the 5th, they had observed them since 1864, in 

 some years as early as the first week in May. To the 6th, the first moths seemed 

 always to seek the rankest cotton, which was most generally to be found in the 

 richest land. The answers to the 7th question were varied and unsatisfactory, though 

 a majority inclined to favor the ground hibernation, because they had plowed up 

 chrysalids resembling Aletia, and yet few had sufficient curiosity or had taken the 

 trouble to hatch them out. But a few of the most intelligent and observant planters 

 were very positive they had seen the moths alive in protected spots and after the 

 coldest weather in winter, and had no doubt in regard to identification. To the 8th 

 question, it was answered with one accord that the insecticides most generally observed 

 were the small ants, disx^ersed everywhere in the cotton fields, many varieties of birds, 

 and some domestic fowls, where fields were convenient to habitations, assisted by 

 spiders, wasps, yellow-jackets, and dirt-daubers, as known to plantatioD parlance. 

 Among quadrupeds, none but wild animals were supposed to prey upon the worms, as 

 hogs were fenced out and not allowed in the fields. To the 9th, opinions were about 

 equally divided as to x>ractical results, though a very general concurrence of views 

 in favor of lights, if all planters would set them at or near the same time. A few had 

 used lamps, with pans smeared with coal-tar or filled with molasses and vinegar. 

 Hardly any were satisfied with the results, as this style of warfare was not in general 

 use. One planter thought he had hastened the destruction of his croj), though his 



* See introduction. 



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