ANSWERS TO CIIi'CULAR NO. 7. [73] 



I hope what I have written above may prove acceptable to you. I have given you 

 all the information I could which I could vouch for personally. Any future commu- 

 nication from you or your office will bo replied to fully and caudidly. 



The Cotton Wormshave made their annual appearance in our parish this year, but 

 have done no general damage. Some few fields have suffered, on alluvial lands, so far 

 as I have heard. The summer has been very hot and dry. 

 Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



DOUGLAS M. HAMILTON. 

 C. V. Riley, Chief U. S. E. C. ^ 



Evergreen, Ala., August 24, 1879. 

 I beg leave respectfully to submit the following answers to your circular (No. 7) 

 concerning the Cotton Worm : 



1. About the year 1817. 



2. In 1825, or about eight years. 



3. It is most generally dreaded after a mild winter, but experience teaches that this 

 fear is ill founded. It is probable that a greater number of the chrysalids survive a 

 mild winter than a severe one, but the present season proves that thoy cannot all be 

 destroyed by cold, for having passed through the severest winter since their advent, 

 the worms are at this time (August 24) destroying the cotton in some localities, and 

 bid fair to make a clean sweep within the next two or three weeks. 



4. Wet springs and summers are decidedly more favorable to their production than 

 dry ones. 



5. On or about the 25th of May, 187.3. 



6. In moist, rich soils, where the weed is most luxuriant. 



7. I know but little from actual observation. I have seen the chrysalids in the 

 ground exposed by plowing, sometimes under turfs or logs, or anything that affords 

 protection from cold and wet. 



8. None. Every variety of birds feed upon them, but there are not enough birds in 

 a State to devour all the worms on a single plantation. The Engiifh sparrow is the 

 only bird that could be introduced which would be available, and it is not considered 

 practicable to try him, for the number required to do the work would require a vast 

 amount of food at all times, and of itself become a greater pest to the farmer than 

 the worm. 



9. All efforts in this direction have been fruitless. The writer is of the opinion that 

 as soon as the moth emerges from the chrysalis it proceeds at once to deposit its eggs 

 (of which it contains a vast number), and is not attracted by anything to be eaten 

 until it has performed that function. They are attracted by anj^ saccharine sub- 

 stance, like sugar and water or molasses and water, but, for the reasons stated above, 

 they are consulered of little value. Fires or lights will also attract them, and, if not 

 too expensive, might be more available than poisons. Owing to the uncertainty of the 

 time of their advent, and of the very short time required for the laying of their eggs, 

 the plan of destroying by tires can hardly be made available, howeVer. 



10. It is immaterial whether the poison is contained in vessels or spread upon boards, 

 trees, &c. ; they are as likely to find it at one place as another. The writer has seen 

 myriads of them destroyed by dropping into evaporators used in making sirup. This, 

 however, is never observed until late in the fall, after the cotton is destroyed and the 

 color of the moth is changed. The last crop of worms are black, or nearly so, and 

 the moth springing from them is of a darker hue than the first seen, and is non-pro- 

 ductive. Those coming from the green worm are brown, and supply all the eggs. 



11. There are none known to the writer. 



12. I have no experience with jute, but have seen cotton grown among corn escape 

 the ravages of the worm when all other was destroyed. The writer does not favor the 

 plan, however, practiced by many cotton planters, of crossing cotton with corn at from 

 12 to 20 feet, inasmuch as the effect of retarding the progress of the worm is not suc- 

 cessfully attained, and the corn thus made will little more than ^jay for the cotton 

 lost, besides impeding the cultivation of the cotton in case the corn is blown down or 

 bent by wind (as happens as often as not). In the opinion of the writer, the better 

 plan is to plant cotton in corn ; i. e., after securing a stand of corn early in the spring, 

 plant a hill of cotton between each two hills of corn, so what corn is made may be 

 considered clear gain. If the corn is not bent, the cotton may be worked after the 

 corn is '^ laid by," and if it is bent, so as to prevent the cultivation of the cotton, 

 nothing is lost by having the cotton there. Of course this plan can only be made 

 profitable on good land, where the cotton will continue to grow after the fodder is 

 pulled. The writer saw last year, however, on poor land, more than 200 pounds of 

 cotton per acre gathered from land where 15 bushels of corn were grown, and this 

 with one additional working. Moreover, cotton grown alone immediately by the side 

 of this corn and cotton was entirely destroyed by worms, ivhile that grown with the corn 

 was untouched. 



