LUTHER BURBANK 



eminent in their destructiveness as to make the 

 ravages of the others seem insignificant. These 

 are the cut worm {Aletia argillacea) , the cotton 

 worm, the cotton boll-worm (Heliothis armiger), 

 and the Mexican cotton boll weevil (Anthonomus 

 grandis) , 



The cutworms are dangerous to the young 

 plants as to other seedlings. The cotton worm may 

 appear in hordes, but has not been especially 

 destructive in recent years. The cotton boll-worm 

 is an insect which, notwithstanding its name, pre- 

 fers other crops, in particular maize, to cotton, so 

 that the cotton crop may be protected from its 

 aggression by planting a few rows of maize at 

 intervals of twenty-five cotton rows throughout the 

 cotton field. 



But the newest and most aggressive of the 

 pests, the cotton boll weevil, is an enemy that is 

 not so easily reckoned with. 



This little insect has been known a long time 

 in Mexico as a pest that attacks and destroys the 

 tender portion of the cotton boll itself. But it is 

 only in recent decades that this insect has worked 

 its way northward and into the cotton region of 

 the United States. 



It must now be reckoned as one of the most 

 destructive enemies of the cotton plants in the 

 more southerly districts. 



[122] 



