[56J REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



reservoirs at tlie foot of the lights were filled with the flies, while another was equally- 

 convinced that the operations of the worms had been greatly retarded, and he was 

 satisfied that from this cause he had fared better than his neighbors, who had not been 

 so provident. Very many observers of the moth believed they were readily attracted 

 by sweets, as they were generally noticed hovering about the sorghum kettles and 

 vats in the boiling season. None had seen them feeding upon any leaf or flower. To 

 the 11th, all answered they did not know any flowers that attracted them. To the 

 12th, it was stated by all questioned that they had no experience of the jute plant. 

 One party had grown jute, but had no opinion as to its effects upon the fly or worm. 

 To the 13th, many planters appeared to favor the use of Paris green and arsenic, while 

 others were equally satisfied with the arseniate of soda and London purple, it being 

 with most planters a question of cost, which decided their predilection. To the 14th, 

 no harm need result to man or beast where caution is used in the application of any 

 poison in solution. There was some risk when distributed in the powder. If aiiplied 

 in excess upon the plant, the leaves were blistered and the forms and bolls damaged. 

 The greatest danger was in the application in wet weather, when the ^proportions were 

 greatly increased. To the loth, all expressed their preference for the i^oisons, though 

 I found one old planter who had used salt (one peck to forty gallons of water), who 

 appeared to be sincere in the belief that the worms had been killed. I saw his field 

 about the middle of September ; it had not been materially damaged, except by losses 

 from the wet weather. To the 16th, all the answers were sheer guesses, though the 

 lowest estimates were on the use of arsenic and London purple in solution. None 

 cared to count the cost of the labor in the application. 



After the close of my observations upon the alluviums of the Brazos and Colorado 

 Rivers, I extended my researches to the higher and more undulating sections of the 

 West, where the worms had worked less injury. But I was startled at the show of a 

 large area of dead cotton. Those who owned or cultivated these lands had not the 

 most remote conceptio:^ of the causes of this moribund condition of their crops, or 

 what would conduce to the defecation of the soil. The lands are of the richest hue, 

 somewhat limy and adhesive, but exhibiting a wide spread of an efflorescent fungus, 

 snuffy in appearance and equally destructive to every form of ijlant life. I trans- 

 mitted some of this poison, spewed up from the earth in a powdered state, to your 

 address from Werner, where I found it in large quantities. 



I have made a faithful effort to experiment with the pyrethrum powders and beer 

 mash, where there were worms working upon the cotton ; but from the constant rains, 

 even up to the present hour, found it impossible of su ccess. None of the arsenical com- 

 pounds can be applied in a cheaper and more effective form and with less waste of ma- 

 terial than by the agencies presently i,n use, though there may be improvements for the 

 more rapid distribution upon the plants. All the poisons here referred to have their 

 advocates, while the proportions of each, necessary to cover an acre of cotton, will 

 have to be determined by the conditions of the weather and the size of the plants in 

 each and every locality. To cotton of an ordinary growth, in a dry atmosphere, one 

 pound of unadulterated arsenic, three-fourths of a pound of genuine Paris green, one- 

 half a pound of London purple, and one-fourth of a pound of arsenite of soda, to 40 

 gallons of water, well sprayed on, while the worms are young, will be quite sufficient 

 for one acre of cotton. If the weather is showery, or the worms well grown, one-fourth 

 to one-half more of the poisons may be added, depending upon the strength of the 

 material. All these are well known and approved remedies and the methods of ad- 

 mixture and application are well understood. 



It is impossible that the ordinary observer, without suitable aid and much waste of 

 time, can count with certainty as to the effects of any poison upon the eggs per se, be- 

 cause many of them are barren from other causes, and if affected by poisons this could 

 not be determined in the field; but the moment life is in the larvce instinctively they 

 begin to feed, and they no sooner eat of the poisoned leaf than they perish. The full- 

 grown worms do not appear to be such constant feeders; they repose for hours in the 

 day in playful dalliance with the comfort of their surroundings, are extremely slug- 

 gish till disturbed, and can not be so readily destroyed. 



I found no insects affecting the root of the cotton plant nor the square or involucre 

 within the sphere of my observation. The shedding of the squares or forms, to any 

 unusual extent, is well understood to be due to extremes of weather, wet or dry. 

 Nor has any insect injuring the blooms been discovered or complained of among 

 planters, except in those localities where the Boll Worm has made its appearance. 

 This insect has not yet reached the plantations of this section. 



The views promulgated in my former report have been to some extent modified by 

 my own observations as well as information derived from authentic sources, and I have 

 stated them with all candor ; and if a suggestion of my own opinions, upon the rem- 

 edies proposed to be mainly relied on, will be of any value in the future treatment oi 

 this question, I will here make the declaration, as I am well convinced of the same, 

 that if all those engaged in planting would consent to set lights, with pans or trays 

 filled or besmeared with some poisonous or adhesive fluid, in the early spring, the cotton 



