Mat, 1912.] 



397 



Fibres. 



worm will devour an enormous amount, 

 and naturally it must be destroyed at 

 once. The usual remedy is 1 lb. Paris 

 green mixed with 7 lb. air-slaked lime. 

 This should be tied in thin cloth bags 

 and dusted over the plants after a rain 

 or before the dew is off in the morning, 

 and the application should be repeated 

 as often as necessary. 



Another insect destructive in places 

 is the Blister Mite. This is a minute 

 insect attacking the leaves and causing 

 small blisters. Such blistered leaves will 

 be of no use to the plant and the growth 

 will be stunted. A good remedy for 

 Blister Mite is flowers of sulphur mixed 

 with equal parts of air-slaked lime and 

 dusted on like Paris green. This same 

 remedy may also be used for rust and 

 mildew diseases caused of fungi. The 

 leaves become spotted, and, in cases of 

 mildew, white underneath, which, as in 

 the case of Blister Mite, spoils their 

 usefulness and checks the growth of the 

 plant. 



The Boll Worm, which hatches out 

 and feeds in the boll, is the same as 

 the Tomato Worm and the Corn 

 Ear Worm, and cannot be destroyed 

 by poisoning, but the moth will lay 

 its eggs in corn in preference to cotton, 

 and the insects can therefore be largely 

 caught by planting a few rows of corn 

 in the cotton field, and cutting it for 

 green fodder shortly after the ears have 

 formed. 



Another insect worth looking out for 

 is the Cotton Stainer. This is a bug 

 which stains the cotton with its yellow- 

 ish excrement, and causes some dam- 

 age by sucking the juices from the bolls. 

 The insect will probably not be trouble- 

 some, but if so, spraying mixtures like 

 whale-oil soap or kerosine emulsion will 

 have to be used, because it cannot be 

 destroyed with arsenical or other poi- 

 sons. 



The Boll Weevil is a small weevil, bor- 

 ing into the young bolls and laying her 

 eggs which later hatch out into a small 

 grub. This grub feeds on the tissues 

 inside the boll and destroys it. There 

 are no poisons that can reach the grub 



inside the boll, nor kill the adult weevil ; 

 but the pest can be kept in check in the 

 following manner : — Destroy all the wild 

 cotton plants in the vicinity, including 

 tree cotton and all. This can be done in 

 any community with co-operate effort, 

 and in places like the Isle of Pines and 

 the extreme western end of Cuba, it 

 could be done very thoroughly by a 

 Government decree. 



All cotton fields should be planted 

 about the same time, and as soon as the 

 cotton has been picked, except the last 

 scattered bolls, the fields should be 

 burned over and ploughed ap. In that 

 way there will be no breeding-place left 

 for the insects, and other insects besides 

 weevils will be killed off. 



Harvesting. 



This, we surmise, is one of the very 

 important operations not properly at- 

 tended to in the past. To pick cotton by 

 hand may not be an art, but it certainly 

 requires some experience to do it well 

 and cheap. Long staple must be handled 

 carefully, much more so than the short 

 staple cotton in the United States, be- 

 cause it is a fancy article and must be 

 properly handled to bring a fancy price. 



The pickers should be supplied with a 

 sack having two compartments, and 

 they sfcould learn to pick the cotton in 

 such a manner that no leaves or pieces 

 of stems adhere to the lint. In one com- 

 partment of the sack should be put 

 nothing but the absolutely tirst-class 

 clean cotton. In the other compartment 

 should be put the stained dirty and 

 under-developed lint. The cotton should 

 be picked only when it is dry, that is, 

 free from rain or dew ; but even then it 

 may be too damp to gin, and it should 

 be spread out on lath frames in the sun 

 for a few hours Next it should be 

 wipped and graded, that is, it should be 

 freed from all dirt, which can best be 

 done on a wire-netting of j in. mesh, 

 stretched over a frame. The cotton 

 should be slapped on to that frame, a 

 handful at a time, allowing impurities 

 to fall through, and dirty, stained lint 

 should be picked out during the process. 

 This wippiag, sunning and careful pick- 



