26 EEPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
Florida Plantation" (Atlantic Monthly, May 1879, p. 641). The worms 
were this year very destructive in southern Arkansas, and also did some 
damage in North Carolina. 
There were not lacking those who, on the coming of 18G7, prophesied 
a year of general devastation on account of the space — 21 years — be- 
tween this year and 1840; but, contrary to their expectations, 1867 was 
but little worse than 1800. Texas, it is true, suffered severely, but the 
other States were comparatively exempt. The districts along the Mis- 
sissippi River in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi were damaged 
considerably, but the interior counties were injured but little. In Ala-, 
bama, Georgia, and Florida the total losses were slight. Here and there 
the crop of a small district-would be taken, but the average loss was 
low. In the latter part of the season the worms were numerous in 
South and North Carolina, but they injured the crop but little. 
1808 proved to be one of the most disastrous years on record. The 
worms appeared in May in Texas, and the gravest fears were expressed 
from this early advent. On the whole, the loss in Texas and Louisiana 
did not equal that of the previous year. In Mississippi the loss was 
rather greater than in 1807. Alabama and Georgia suffered exceed- 
ingly ; the loss in the latter State was entirely unprecedented. Through 
the central part of the State the average loss is reported at 50 per cent. 
In Alabama, with a few exceptions, the central and northernmost 
counties were damaged the most, the exceptions being Conecuh, Cren- 
shaw, Barbour, and Montgomery. In South Carolina the crops were 
injured in some localities to the extent of a loss of 33 per cent. In 
North Carolina, though numerous, the worms were not destructive, clear- 
ing away the leaves just in time to assist in the ripening of the tolls. 
One cannot help but notice, in studying these appearances of the 
worm from year to year, that they come in waves, gradually increas- 
ing, until at length, from one cause or another, they break and almost 
disappear. 18U5, 1840, 1808, and, as we shall see, 1873, 1870, and 1881, 
are the culminating points of such waves or series of years during which 
the ravages of the worms have been gradually increasing, and in the 
year following each of these comes the breaking, and the next wave is 
begun. With a few unimportant exceptions, this rule is observed 
throughout the entire history of the Cotton Worm. 
This result is natural, and arises from the tendency of the worms to in- 
crease in geometrical proportion and at a more rapid rate than their 
parasites. But whenever they have multiplied beyond the power of 
their food-plant to sustain them, or whenever meteorological conditions 
unfavorable to their increase obtain, the parasites get the upper hand 
and the break in the series occurs. This rise and fall has often been 
noticed by writers on injurious insects, but from the very nature of the 
case it is not regular, and cannot be depended upon. 
180!) proved to be a year of drought, and there was a sudden decrease 
in the loss from the caterpillars. Here and there the crop of a county 
