DISEASES OF THE COTTON PLANT. 
245 
may have the interior entirely dried up and destroyed, 
while others wUl open with only one or two segments rot- 
ted, the rest being perfectly healthy, and filled with good 
white cotton. 
As to the theory of a defect in the soil, it has been 
stated by some planters that barnyard manure will often 
produce it ; but, if this is the case, it is somewhat singular 
that it has often been observed that one plant may be very 
badly affected by the rot, while others on each side are per- 
fectly healthy and uninjured, as has often been observed. 
This fact appears to show that a great deal depends upon 
the constitution of the plant itself, which may be inherited 
from its parent, and perhaps a choice of good sound seed^ 
from strong and healthy plants only, might in time have a 
great effect in remedying this disease ; and, as we know 
that much depends upon the vigor, health, and prolific 
qualities of the parent plant, it might perhaps be well to 
make experiments by planting seed of diseased, and sound, 
healthy plants, in the same situation and soil. 
The fungoid, growth, found on the old rotted bolls, 
when they begin to open, may perhaps be regarded more 
as the result than the cause of the disease. Several insects, 
it is true, have been found in these rotten bolls, where 
most probably they had crept for food and shelter, after the 
boll had become rotten, while oi^iers have been caught in 
the very act of piercing the bolls ; but this subject will be 
found treated at greater length under the head of " The 
Boll," and insects found in or upon it, on a preceding page. 
While on the subject of the rot, it may be well to 
mention that there are three glands on the inside of the 
outer calyx, at the bottom of the boll, and three on the 
outside between the " rufl3e " and stalk, which secrete and 
give out a sweet substance, which ants, bees, wasps, and 
