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REMEDIES FOR INSECTS INJURIOUS TO COTTON. 
By Howard Evarts Weed, Agricultural College, Mississippi. 
There are but two species of insects which are especially injurious to 
cotton — the Cotton Leaf-worm, Aletia argillacea, and the Cotton Boll- 
worm, Heliothis armiger. While there are several other Lepidopterous 
species, especially Arctia rectilineal which occasionally may do consid- 
erable damage, and many Hemrpterous species, which do a certain 
amount of damage each year, these do not demand the attention which 
the Cotton Leaf- worm and the Cotton Boll- worm should receive. The 
object of the present paper is to present the latest, and what I consider 
the most effective, methods of dealing with the two last-named species. 
THE COTTON LEAF-WORM. 
Owing to the amount of injury caused by the Cotton Leaf- worm and 
consequent great financial loss to the cotton planters of the Southern 
States, this species was one of the first to receive attention at the 
hands of the U. S. Entomological Commission. We cannot but admire 
the admirable work done by this Commission in the investigation of 
the habits, life history, and remedies for Aletia, but the past ten years 
have made a great difference in economic entomology, so that the same 
remedies recommended by the Commission may not be the best to-day. 
In ante-bellum days, before applied entomology came to the rescue of 
the southern cotton planters, little or nothing was done in trying to 
destroy the Aletia in years when the species was abundant. In such 
years the cotton crop suffered an immense loss. Some planters, how- 
ever, tried primitive means for the destruction of the Aletia, such as 
the picking of the worms by hand. Lights were also used by many, 
both for the Aletia and Heliothis. Lights are yet used in some locali- 
ties very largely, but most planters have now abandoned the light 
method, as it has been many times pointed out by entomologists and 
others that the lights in the cotton fields do more damage in destroy- 
ing beneficial insects than they do good in destroying the injurious 
forms. 
Paris green is the insecticide mostly used in destroying the Aletia, 
although some few planters use London purple. It is applied by means 
of a simple apparatus which, for want of a better name may be desig- 
nated as the " Cotton Dry-poison Duster." This duster consists 
simply of a pole six feet long, at each end of which is attached an 
osnaburg bag about a foot long and six inches wide. The pole is gen- 
erally made of hickory and the bags are tacked onto the ends. A small 
*Note. — At the Rochester meeting of the Association of Economic Entomologists 
(Insect Life vol. v, p. Ill) I reported this species as Arctia phyllira, but Dr. Riley 
afterwards identified it for me as above. 
9052— No. 2 8 
