REPORTS OF CONSULS AND CONSULAR AGENTS. [67] 



No. 4*2.] United States Consulate, 



Pernambuco, March 20, 1880. 

 Sir : I have the honor to transmit herewith my report to the Entomological Com- 

 mission on the cotton culture and the insects affecting it injuriously. 



I find it very dilficult to get any reliable information on that subject. One corre- 

 spondent from whom I expected a full account has failed n^o entirely. 



Such as I have I forward, fearing that it will give but very little satisfaction to the 

 Commission. 



I am, sir, your obedient servant, 



ANDREW CONE, 

 United States Consul. 

 Hon. William Hunter, 



Second Assistant Secretary of State, Washivgton, D. C. 



Consulate of the United States, 



Pernambuco, March 18, 1880. 



Dear Sir : Your letter of inquiry in regard to cotton culture and the insects affect- 

 ing it injuriously, is before me, and I do myself the honor to reply. 



You say, *' I find that it is absolutely necessary for the solution of some of the more 

 important questions to get a better knowledge than we have so far been able to ac- 

 quire of cotton culture and the workings of this insect in Central and South Amer- 

 ica," &c., and you think the consuls at various points therein mentioned might give 

 the Commission valuable aid in this part of its work. 



Permit me to ask, with all due deference, whether men in these benighted countries, 

 centuries behind the United States in skill, knowledge, and development, can enlighten 

 the scientist at home ; nevertheless, I have done what I could and forward the result. 



I have tried in vain, through my Brazilian correspondence, so slow in transmission, 

 to inform myself on this as well as other matters relating to Brazil ; but it seems 

 nearly as difficult to keep one's self posted in the progress of affairs here as it is to ob- 

 tain information from the interior of Asia. 



I wish it were my luck to discover all about the persecutors of the cotton plant, 

 and the remedy for these pests. I should be only too happy to know how to combat 

 these enemies to the greater prosperity of the United States ; to exterminate these 

 devastators, without which I believe the annual cotton crop of our country might be 

 doubled. 



There is no particular skill required in the cultivation of cotton in Brazil. The 

 seeds once put into the ground will soon become plants, and then they only require 

 weeding once or twice a year, according to the season ; the more rain rendering the 

 more weeding necessary, of course. 



The plant in general use in these provinces is the perennial, which grows into a 

 shrub and produces several years. The largest crop is taken the third year, when it 

 deteriorates, and is not worth gathering after the fifth year. 



The herbaceous is of a poorer quality, and is only used because it produces 

 quickly. Neither variety is indigenous to the soil of Brazil. 



As to the culture of cotton in Pernambuco and the other provinces subject to this 

 consulate, viz., Ceara, Rio Grande do Norte, Parahiba, and Alagoas, no correct esti- 

 mate can be given of the amount of land or acreage under cultivation. No planter 

 or owner of a fazenda ever knows how many acres of land he possesses or how much 

 land constitutes an acre, but owns what is embraced in certain metes or bounds. 



The cultivation of cotton is rapidly decreasing here, the price being too low and 

 the export duties too exorbitant for a profitable business. 



The number of bales entered at the port of Pernambuco for the year ending" Sep- 

 tember 30, 1872, was 335,180 bales of about 180 pounds each, while the number of 

 bales entered for the year ending September 30, 1879, was only 30, 168, planters hav- 

 ing turned their attention more to the cultivation of sugar-cane, which pays them 

 better. 



Most of the districts of the different provinces are adapted to the cultivation of 

 cotton even on the serras, where there is abundance of rain. It will grow on almost 

 any soil, but to the greatest perfection in yellow or red clay, the latter being pre- 

 ferred. 



The foes most fatal to the cotton plant are the different kinds of caterpillars, which 

 in some years increase to a frightful extent, destroying entirely the crop, and even 

 the pasturage — the absence of regular rains, and " the blight." The blight is caused 

 by cold nights, or cold rains coming unseasonably in contact with the warm soil, after 

 which the sun burns and scorches up the pods and even the small germs of the plant. 

 With the blight vanishes all the hopes of the planter. 



The Cotton Worm or caterpillar, Anomis xylina, particularly described in your let- 

 ter, attacks the plant in these provinces. It appears simultaneously with the other 

 varieties at the beginning of the rainy season and never alone. It comes and disap- 

 pears with the rain. 



