4:4:4= 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
The winters upon the Texas seaboard are 
mild and of short duration. Very frequently 
the cotton plant is in leaf all winter. I was 
shown a prodigiously tall and strong stalk of 
cottou, cut from a stool of the plant, which had 
become perennial, or had at least held its own 
for many winters, in the lovely Valley of the 
Guadaloupe, not far from the village of Cueio, 
throwing up these immense shoots each spring. 
Now, under these circumstances, the life of 
the moth would need to be 
preserved but a very few 
weeks, to enable it to per- 
form its errand, in perpetu- 
ating its species. The first 
deposited eggs and the first 
larvoe would be exposed to 
many casualties; yet, a very 
few escaping these, would 
- '=>' vtorm. soon p ro( j uce untold mil- 
lions. I have never been able to preserve the moth 
alive longer than from three to seven days. 
But the period of the existence of all such in- 
sects depends so greatly upon the degree of 
moisture and heat of the atmosphere, their 
supply of food, etc., that that is no criterion. 
During the lifetime of the moth, in summer, 
they may be seen in the evening, flitting from 
blossom to blossom of the cotton plant, the cow- 
pea, etc., feeding upon the nectar of the flowers. 
The female deposits from four to six hundred 
eggs, thinly scattered over the under side of the 
leaves of the cotton plant. The egg is minute, 
round, flattish, and of a whitish-green color. 
The lanes arehatched forth in from two to five 
days ; almost invariably in two days of moist, 
warm weather. When hatched, they are very 
minute. About the fifth and sixth days, they 
begin to iucrease rapidly in size, and are vora- 
ciously destructive. Prom the tenth to the fif- 
teenth day, generally about the eleventh and 
twelfth, they enter the chrysalis state. The 
worm draws the edge of a leaf over itself, by 
means of numerous silken threads, until com- 
pletely enveloped, and there, if undisturbed, un- 
dergoes its transformation. Fig. 1 represents a 
full-grown worm. Fig. 2 is an outline of a 
jnetb, to show its natural size, and fig. 3 a moth 
enlarged to show its markings more distinctly. 
A very few days are required by the worm of 
the second or third crop to devour not only 
every leaf, blossom bud, and blossom, but the 
caly c leaves, also, at the base of the bolls, fully 
ana partially grown ; when the lobes which hold 
the cotton open entirely back, and allow the 
cotton to drop on the merest touch. 
From this sketch of the nature and habits of 
these insects, it will be seen how difficult, if not 
impossible, would be the task of destroying 
them by the use of the finger and 
thumb or scissors, as in the case 
ol the tobacco worms, which are 
of great size and few in number 
comparatively. I have experi- 
mented with every means that 
has been suggested through an 
active outdoor life; and the con- 
clusion arrived at, is : Destrov „.. „ 
. „ Pig. "• — MOTH. 
the moth, as you may, with fires 
and lights, or pick off and kill the worm; if a 
single cotton grower in a large district neg- 
lects to do the same, your labor is in vain. 
I7te plant must be rendered obnoxious to the 
moth, so that she will not deposit her eggs upon 
it. Then j-our indolent or indifferent neighbor 
suffers for his neglect instead of yourself. 
Investigations and experiments recently made, 
at home and in Europe, to find a cure for Scab 
and Foot-rot in sheep, led me to the discovery 
that, of all known substances, the comparatively 
recently discovered acid, known as Carbolic, 
formed into a samponaceous compound, was 
the most obnoxious to all insect life. 
I brought home a moderate quantity of JTc- 
DougaWs Sheep Dip, and first experimented with 
that. It is, in fact, a Carbolic soft soap, into a 
solution of which sheep are dipped, and thereby 
cured of scab. 
But I found that the insects in our clear, 
warm, dry climate possess a strength, vitality, 
and power of revivication, if I may use the ex- 
pression, unknown to the same species in Eng- 
land ; and that to destroy the scab insect, fleas 
on dogs, etc., a much stronger solution had to 
be used here than there, and under different 
treatment. 
But in the yet more recently discovered Cresy- 
lic Acid we have the very thing that was wanted. 
I will leave the manufacturers of this soap to 
speak for themselves, — except as to our present 
subject. I found that upon the cotton plants 
sprinkled with a solution of this soap, no cotton 
moth thereafter deposited an egg ! 
Is not this fact worthy of further experiment, 
not only on the cotton plant, but upon all other 
vegetable life threatened by insects, — the plum 
_^ by the curculio ; 
the apple and 
pear by the can- 
ker-worm ; the 
grape and the 
rose by the rose- 
bug; all young 
plants by aphi- 
des, and, above 
all, the wheat by 
the fly? Soon 
after the Cotton- 
worm first ap- 
peared, this sea- 
son, I urged that 
others should try 
similar exper- 
iments. Man}' 
did so, and al- 
most every experimenter made the same re- 
port— "if the mixture is used in sufficient 
strength to hill the worm, it also destroys the 
leaf of the plant." Exactly. But there is no 
necessity for trying to destroy the worm. Let 
him go, if any are there, but prevent the moth 
depositing any more eggs. Tours, T. A. 
Fig. 3. — MOTH ENXABGED. 
Poultry— Close Breeding, etc. 
It is gratifying to observe the rapid increase 
of a very healthy interest in poultry and poultry 
breeding, which is manifesting itself almost all 
over the country. An American Society has 
been formed, which it is hoped will take high 
ground, uniting the various clubs, societies, and 
individual poultry breeders in various parts of 
North America, and being by them used for ad- 
vancing their own interests by exchange of birds, 
information, etc. , besides the advantage in having 
a certain uniformity of rules and standards. 
Writing to the Agriculturist on this general sub- 
ject, 3Ir. S. B. Heiyes, of York Co., Pa., remarks: 
"A. greater interest than heretofore has re- 
cently been manifested in poultry, because of 
the great number of reliable persons who have 
gone into importing and rearing valuable varie- 
ties of poultry, both for ornament and use. 
That the general interest is greater is plainly 
seen from the crowds assembling around the 
poultry coops at Cur County fairs, where a 
greater and better variety of all domestic fowls 
has been placed upon exhibition than our State 
fairs could boast of a few years ago. 
While this is the fact, there are a great many 
truths which can be promulgated only by the 
united action of individuals, as a society. The 
majority of breeders are ignorant of the many 
evils (and of the few good results) attending 
close, or in-and-in, breeding. They start out 
with a few noble specimens, and in a very few- 
years their darling fowls have lost size and good 
qualities; they become discouraged, and abandon 
every effort to raise fine poultry. Proper in- 
struction from well organized societies would 
obviate this. 'Permit me to state two remark- 
able phenomena, results of close breeding, that 
were submitted to my consideration lately. 
Jos. Shuman, near Tork Co., Pa., a gentleman 
who raises nothing but Sumatra game, (having 
procured his stock from Albertus Welsh, who 
bought of Bennett's imported stock,) by contin- 
ually breeding from the same strain has pro- 
duced perfectly white Sumatras ; a change 
from black to white. They are beautiful speci- 
mens, with dark legs, and compact bodies con- 
taining greater weight in small superficies than 
any other breed with which I am familiar. 
Samuel Dick, Esq., of the same County, from a 
stock of Buff Shanghaes, which I have also 
traced back to importation, has also produced 
fine specimens of pure wJiite. May not the 
White Leghorn have been produced by breeding 
from the same strain of Black Spanish ? They 
possess all their characteristics, and, if bred 
closely, will produce black offspring, which I 
know beyond a doubt. That good may result 
from this practice, I do not deny, but that "like 
will produce like," is not always true when we 
overstep the bounds of nature. 
It is conceded that all of our varieties of tur- 
keys have sprung from the wild bird. Domesti- 
cation and in-and-in breeding have given us 
fowls differing widely from the original in color, 
bearing, and size, and possessing traits unknown 
in the original, as the custom of the White 
Holland turkey to lay extensively in the fall." 
Breeding of Swine, 
The careless way in which swine are bred en- 
tails upon them enfeebled constitutions, prone- 
ness to disease, inability to make, the best use 
of their feed, grow rapidly, fatten rapidly, and 
make hard, firm flesh, with little offal. Close 
attention to breeding and to health will quickly 
develop in this plastic race an astonishing apti- 
tude to take on fat, rapid change of form, ap- 
proaching nearer and nearer whatever may be 
taken as a standard, and a soundness of consti- 
tution which is increasingly hereditary. We 
have not a doubt that many of the ills from 
which mankind suffer come directly or indirect- 
ly from pork eating. Nevertheless, we believe 
that reasonable attention to the health of swine 
would result in so much greater healthfulness of 
pork, that it might be eaten by persons able to 
take so hearty food, with impunity. Jefferson 
Co., N. Y., has long been noted for its fine hogs. 
The State fairs have repeatedly witnessed fine 
exhibitions coming from that County, and we 
have almost come to regard any Jefferson Co. 
farmer as authority on hogs. Mr. M. Pierson, 
who dates thence, writes : 
1 was glad to see something in the Agricv.1- 
turist in regard to breeding this indispensable, 
yet most neglected, carelessly fed and bred, of 
all domestic animals — the hog. Messrs. Bidwell 
Bros., of Minnesota, speak well in their surges- 
