XXXVI 
INTEODUCTION. 
had been issued for machinery to be used against the Cotton Worm, but 
more particularly such as was actually in use in the field. A summary 
of the results was given in Bulletin 3 of the Commission. The variety 
of these inventions by Southern planters and the ingenuity displayed 
in many of them compared very favorably with what had been done in 
similar directions in other parts of the country, and two important facts 
were obvious and are worthy of emphasis : 
First. Though there is every reason to believe that the ravages of the 
worm were proportionally as great before as they have been since the 
late war, yet all the more important inventions post-date that period. 
Prior thereto only the more primitive and ineffective means of destruc- 
tion, such as hand-picking and the use of fires and lights m the fields at 
night, were resorted to. 
Secondly. By far the greater number of the machines have been in- 
vented in Texas, and this is doubtless due to the circumstance that the 
worm occurs more regularly and more disastrously there than in other 
States. Both facts are indicative of the more healthy development of 
the South under free as compared with slave labor. 
The more satisfactory machines in vogue were those w hich distributed 
the liquid poison in broadcast spray or sprinkle over the surface of the 
plants from some wheeled vehicle containing a reservoir for the liquid, 
which was either distributed automatically or by means of force-pumps. 
We soon became convinced that whatever improvements were possible 
mast be, as indicated in our later instructions to agents, in the direction 
of spraying the under surfaces of the leaves and of reducing to a mini- 
mum the quantity of poison necessary to an acre, as also the labor 
necessary to apply it. 
The more important of these aims was first foreseen by Mr. W. J. 
Daughtrey, of Selma, Ala., who, in February, 1878, in his letters patent 
(see pp. 253-9), fully realized the advantage of fine spray on the under 
side of the leaves. Although the very ingenious machine contrived by 
him and described in these chapters did not work as successfully as he 
had hoped, and was too elaborate, heavy, and expensive to prove prac- 
tically successful, yet too much praise cannot be given Mr. Daugh- 
trey for the clear manner in which he saw what was required and the 
.skill with which he endeavored to put the principle to practice. It has 
been our aim in this part of the work to develop simpler means, that 
may be available to the average planter for attaining the same object, 
and we would more particularly call attention to the underspraying ar- 
rangements described on pp. 288-293 and supplemented in Note 52. 
Jn order to accomplish anything of value in this field of machinery, it 
was necessary that some competent person should be able to devote his 
entire time to carrying out our ideas and to such experimentation as 
the objects in view suggested or required. Experience had shown that 
a professional engineer was not best fitted for the work, and we were 
final ly fortunate in securing, in the summer of of 1880, the services of 
