40 BULLETIN NO. 3, DIVJSION OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



In the more evenly disposed cotton, stiff fork apparatus, made light and 

 shorter, to supply only four rows at each drive, and hung loosely upon 

 hooks instead of eyes, without the ratchet lever elevator, and capable 

 of being easily slid by hand to the left or right, as infringement on row 

 crooks from time to time required, proved susceptible of use with due 

 watchfulness ; but the eight-row machine was too heavy to be thus 

 shifted by hand, and being stiff- backed with rigid descending pipes, no 

 eight consecutive rows could be found regular enough to be callipered 

 for much distance by this device. The inflexibility also prevented con- 

 formability of the apparatus to inequalities of the ground, an eleva- 

 tion straining hard on one descending pipe, lifting the others from the 

 ground, etc., and the light, flexile, jointed nozzle-arms, being borne 

 upon severely by the stiff pipe system, soon became impaired, whereas 

 they had formerly and have since worked well on the yielding stem- 

 pipes of the adjustable machines which were tested at the time of the 

 Atlanta exposition, as well as in these last experiments. For under- 

 spraying, this old-fashioned, stiff, cross-pipe system is shown to be wrong,, 

 as originally foreseen, unless some power can be brought to bear to en- 

 force a system of greater straightness and equality in planting cotton. 

 A considerable amount of the irregularity in rows has been attributed 

 to the " constitutional perversity and crookedness of the nigger," ap- 

 pearing from the bad execution of his instructions. But even if this could 

 be corrected it is not the matter of vital importance, for the planter 

 himself, as well as the field-hand, is guided by a natural principle 

 which will always control and stand against any contrary theoretical 

 or mechanical rule. According to " the strength of the ground," the size 

 of plant it will produce, will the rows run wider or narrower in any par- 

 ticular " cut w or part of a " cut." This accounts for the diverging and 

 meandering rows, for the many " cuts" of a plantation differing among 

 each other in their row-widths as observed everywhere. 



As to conveyances for underspraying apparatuses, it was found not 

 desirable to use a wagon or cart of ordinary width (5 feet) in cotton 

 only 3 feet wide or less, because of the much injury done to the plants 

 by the wheels. Most of the cotton in the Carolinas, Georgia, Ten- 

 nessee, Alabama, and Mississippi comes within these dimensions $ hence 

 a shorter special axle for the cart or wagon wheels should generally 

 be employed in any conveyance for the apparatus. But where se- 

 verely threatened by worms the ordinary wagon or cart will do less 

 damage than the pest in any kind of cotton; and it is on this ac- 

 count that wagons are already used to a considerable extent for trans- 

 porting poison and broadcast spraying devices in all kinds of fields. 

 Mr. A. T. Jones, near Selma, uses four mules on his heavy spraying 

 machine. But ordinarily the common plantation cart will be found the 

 most suitable vehicle. This or the lumber wagon will straddle rows 

 4 feet apart or over without injury to the plants except in turning, 

 and that is surprisingly small, being least with the cart. With shafts 



