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important points conuected with the subject upon wliicli I might say much 

 more, were it not tha 1 1 fear in doing so I might too far trespass upon your 

 patience. In conclusion, therefore, I heg to make a few suggestions which 

 I feel the importance of the subject demands. 



In the first place the natural history of the cotton caterpillar is very little 

 understood, and while it is so we are bound to remain in ignorance of the 

 best means of their universal destruction, which should be the end aimed 

 at. 



Would it not be expedient, as well as profitable, for those States that 

 eufier such enormous losses from the depredations of the caterpillars to 

 employ an experienced and competent entomologist to investigate thor- 

 oughly the natural history, habits, etc., etc., of this great enemy of the 

 cotton plant f I am satisfied that until such researches are made we will 

 only be groping in the dark and not likely, for a long time, to arrive at 

 satisfactory conclusions. 



This I trust you will strenuously urge in your forthcoming work. 



I will not trouble you farther only hoping my answers to your questions 

 may prove satisfactory, and would gladly give any other information I 

 might possess on the subject. I will perhaps be in New Orleans in January, 

 when, if you desire it, I can give you my views more at length on the 

 subject. 



Yours, very respectfully, 



SMITH GORDON. 



Alexandria, Dec. 2\8t, 1877. 

 J, Curtis Waldo, Esq., New Orleans, La. : 



Dear Sir, — Press of businens engagements must plead my excuse for 

 not having sooner answered your circular letter of the 1st instant. 



I am not sufficiently versed in the science of entomology to answer all of 

 your questions with any degree of accuracy, so I will confine myself to 

 facts of which I am fully cognizant and which have come under my own 

 personal observation. 



I was born and raised on a cotton plantation and have been engaged in 

 its culture for more than twenty years. 



It is impossible for me to say when I first noticed the worms, my 

 recollection of them extends to my early childhood, and I presume that 

 they are, in this latitude, cceval with the cotton plant itself. It has been 

 generally believed that wet seasons were much more apt to produce the 

 worms than dry ones, but this does not accord with my own observations ; 

 for I have seen them in all tha might of their destruction in dry as well as 

 wet seasons, whilst on the other hand in some of our wettest summers the 

 cotton fields were exceptionally clear of them. 



Until within a few years the cotton planter has felt that he was power- 

 less to make any defence against the ravages of these voracious little pests, 

 but thanks to the inventive resources of man, a remedy has been discovered, 

 absolutely efficacious and easily within the reach of every one. 



I have experimented with Paris green during three seasons, with the most 



