184 
COTTON 
from the southern portions of the country along the 
Gulf each year must furnish the northern popula- 
tion, and so great is the number, the hosts often do 
considerable damage to late peaches in Kansas and 
ruin acres of cantaloupes as far north as Wisconsin. 
WHERE THE WINTER IS SPENT 
The moths that go to the north each season 
never live through the winter; they are too far 
from home to get back again, and the winter is too 
severe for them to endure the cold; hence they 
never see the coming of a new year. It is left to 
their relatives and their kind that abide in the 
warmer sections of the most southern portions of 
the Cotton Belt. Great numbers of these likewise 
perish. But of course many succeed in finding 
winter quarters to their liking, through the shelter 
of rank wire grass, and other vegetation. Ex- 
ceptionally few of these survive, but their large 
broods quickly populate all their territory, and the 
caterpillars are as numerous as the season before. 
GETTING RID OF THEM 
The natural way to rid the land of these pests 
would be to destroy their winter quarters, and they 
would perish as they do when attacked by like 
unfavorable conditions elsewhere. This seems im- 
practicable now, since the undrained territory 
and waste places of their winter resorts are so 
extensive. 
A COMMON REMEDY 
Where the caterpillar becomes very troublesome, 
