188 
COTTON 
May, there is easily time enough for five or six 
generations in each season. What a population 
for a single year! Do you wonder that their 
ravages are so destructive, or their reputation for 
evil so extensive ? 
Nor do these pests limit their work to the cotton 
plant alone; they are just as aggressive in the 
fields of corn as in the cotton fields. They find 
pleasant feeding grounds in both tassels and grow- 
ing ears. When the former have passed their edible 
state and the latter have become too hard for 
eating, the moth seeks other feeding grounds, new 
cotton perhaps, or a later-maturing corn somewhat 
farther off; maybe a tomato field lies in some other 
direction : if so, it will be found and appropriated 
for the use of the new-coming brood. 
WHEN WINTER COMES 
As a rule, larvae of the latest broods seek winter 
homes in the ground and there remain until the 
warm days of spring rescue them when they issue 
forth as moths, soon to lay eggs preparatory to 
another summer's campaign. But this is not the 
only way the winter months are passed, for adult 
moths are known to seek shelter in some protected 
place and hibernate during the cold weather, 
perhaps only a few, however, in the adult or moth 
stage. 
ENEMIES OF THE INSECT 
Many birds feed constantly on worms. Nat- 
urally the cotton caterpillar and the cotton boll 
worm do not escape this provision by which nature 
seeks to keep them and other insect pests in check. 
The boll worm is the more favored of these two 
