[74] REPORT 4, UNlTEt) STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



13. Notbing. From experience in the use of a tea or decoction of the China berry 

 on cabbage, to drive away worms, bugs, Sec, the writer is induced to believe that the 

 same might be used with success on cotton. It is well known that all insects or ver- 

 min are averse to the taste or proximity to this plant, and the writer has no doubt 

 that a thorough application of it^o cotton, made at the proper time, would drive off 

 the worms. I will not undertake to say that it is practicable, for the labor of makiug 

 the tea and applying it may overbalance the profit. In other respects, however, it, 

 has the advantage of being cheap and harmless. 



14. I have seen the cotton plant scorched and ruined by using the poisons in too 

 concentrated a form, but have seen no injury to persons or animals. Being a deadly 

 poison, however, the Paris green will certainly kill animals as well as worms if taken 

 into the stomach. It acts as a poison also when iutroduced into the system through 

 the blood, and should consequently be handled with a great deal of care. 



15. Of the means yet divscovered, no agent has the advantage of Paris green. 



16. For the jjrotection of cotton of average size of weed, an outlay of about $2 or 

 12.25 i)er acre will be incurred in this locality, including the cost of the poison, flour 

 or gypsum for mixing, and labor of applying. In places where water can be had 

 without too much labor the cost might be a little less; but comparatively few farmers 

 have this natural advantage. 



The writer takes occasion, in this connection, to suggest a solution of the ''cater- 

 pillar question" in a very few words. Let every cotton planter in the South adopt 

 a system of reduced acreage, high manuring, and thorough cultivation. Let him 

 plant only such lands as will return a large yield, say one, two, or three bales per 

 acre, and he can afford to apply Paris green and save his cotton. Of course, this can 

 be done in most sections of the South only by high manuring; but no farmer should 

 plant more cotton than he can make remunerative. If he can manure but one acre, 

 let him plant but one. This system would not only save the cotton from destruction 

 by worms, but would immeasurably improve the financial condition of the South and 

 the whole country. The farmer, having less cotton planted, would have more land 

 to devote to grain- crops and stock-raising, and after one or two years the market value 

 of cotton wouk^be so enhanced that he would receive as much money for his few 

 bales as he now does for his many. 

 Very respectfully, 



ROBT. A. LEE. 



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



Hendp:rsox, Tex., Novmiber 27, 1878. 



In reference to our Cotton Caterpillar, it is hard to drive to an uncontested conclu- 

 sion, as there are almost as many opinions as there are cotton farmers in the South. 



I am a native of Louisiana, sixty-four years old, and have been growing cotton the 

 greater portion of my life; still I know but little that is worth tellifig in reference to 

 this terrible Southern pest. The first Cotton Caterpillar I ever saw was in Holmes 

 County, Mississippi, in 1846. The second time I saw them, in numbers worthy of 

 notice, was during our last unfortunate war, 1864. Since then they have appeared 

 annually (more or less) in all the Cotton States. They appear to he migratory, but many 

 deny this, and support their views with some plausibility. But we are taught by 

 experience that they do not appear simultaneously over the whole country, bnt annu- 

 ally appear in the extreme southern portions of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and 

 Texas. We often hear of them fonr to six weeks before they raise, hatch, and accu- 

 mulate sufficient numbers to reach the northern portions of these States. The first- 

 comer (or parent) is a small yellowish fly, resembling somewhat our usual summer- 

 evening candle fly. Whether from instinct or not, I cannot tell — but I will call it 

 instinct — the first fly visitors always deposit their eggs in the center of each field. 

 Why so in every instance, if it is not to place himself, as well as his first brood, as far 

 away from birds and other enemies which might annoy them near to the forest trees 

 and woods ? 



Again, they invariably deposit the eggs in the top — yes, in the bud — of each stalk 

 or plant, for there the little embryo leaf is full of downy fnzz, in which the eggs lie 

 closely bedded, elevated high to the dew, and warm sun, and soon hatch. Now we 

 have the worm, so small as to be almost unobservable, but safely secured in his downy 

 bed, which down is his food for a day or two, when he begins to feed on the yet small 

 and tender leaf, and eats day and night until he webs up, to reappear another fly. 

 This is our first crop ; and from first observation of the fly until the second crop ap- 

 pears is about fifteen to twenty days. This second crop proceed as the first, deposit- 

 ing their eggs in the bud, and this time extend their dominions to three-fourths and 

 sometimes over the whole field, maturing as before, giving the third crop, which soon 

 finishes the last leaf of the young fruit. I will add that many suppose this last crop, 

 after devouring the crop, deposit their eggs in old hollow trees, old dry fence-rails, 

 dry weeds, or other dry rubbish, to slumber till another year, and then reappear. This 



