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the richest portions of the southwestern cotton belt the planters culti- 
vated in former years extremely tall and rank varieties of cotton bear- 
ing few seeds, but producing a long fiber; to-day, where cotton seed is 
worth from $9 to 815 per ton, they cultivate much smaller varieties, 
with short fiber, but producing plenty of seeds. The fields in the 
bottom lands look to day quite differently from what they did fourteen 
years ago. They are much more open, and one can readily walk or 
drive through them in all diiections; in short, they do not longer offer 
the same favorable conditions for the earlier broods of the cotton worm 
as in former years. 
Above all, there is one thing that more than anything else has 
deprived the cotton worm of its dread and power of destruction which 
in former years accompanied its apparently mysterious appearance. 
Only a little over twenty years have elapsed since the time when a few 
individual farmers commenced in a feeble way a rational warfare 
against the cotton worm, and even as late as 1879 many farmers 
despaired of ever being able to successfully cope with the worms. At 
that time, one generation after another of the worms was allowed to 
develop unmolested, and the poison only applied when it was too late, 
or almost too late, to save the crop. Today there is everywhere a 
greater watchfulness for the first appearance of the worms and a 
much greater readiness in applying the proper remedies. In short, on 
my trip through the South, in 1894, I was extremely gratified to find 
that this.feeling of helplessness had entirely died out, and that through- 
out the cotton belt, wherever I stopped to make inquiries, the farmers 
uniformly and emphatically expressed the utmost confidence in their 
ability to fight the worms. u We regard the cotton- worm question as 
solved." These were the words with which a prominent planter iu the 
Brazos River bottom, near Bryan, Tex., greeted me; and I heard these 
welcome words at many other places in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, 
and Alabama. 
The remedies relied upon for the destruction of the worms are still 
the old ones, viz, Paris green and London purple, all other forms of 
arsenical mixtures, patented or not patented, having disappeared. 
But Paris green is immensely mare in favor than London purple; in 
fact, during my whole trip 1 struck only one locality (the Brazos bot- 
tom land at Bryan and Hearne, Tex.) where the latter is extensively 
and successfully used. The reasons for this preference are not difficult 
to point out. Paris green was the first poison successfully used by the 
planters and has never given any reason for complaint; even a strong 
overdose, such as is likely to occur with the present mode of applica- 
tion, never does any harm to the plant, and a very minute quantity is 
equally effective. Moreover, the strongest point which, in former 
years, was urged in favor of London purple, viz, its cheaper price, has 
considerably lost in importance since Paris green is now sold at 1.") 
cents per pound, whereas London purple is now at from 7 cents to 8 
