INTRODUCTION. 
xxvn 
of the State. It seems to come from Decatur to Baker, Calhoun, Dougherty, and Lee 
Counties. According to present testimony its appearance is not simultaneous over 
this section of the State, the southern portions being first visited. 
"From testimony eollected by myself in Athens, on the occasion of the meeting of 
the Agricultural Society of Georgia, the following counties are visited by the Cotton 
Worm every year, though the exact line is not, according to testimony, the same : 
Calhoun, Decatur, Dougherty, Lee, Mason, Schley, Taylor. 
" Counties in which the worm is not noticed every year are : Bnrke, Clarke, Fulton, 
Greene, Hancock, Jones, Monroe, Putnam, Richmond. 
t* It will be seen that the central portion of the State is less subject to the devasta- 
tion of the Cotton Worm than the southwestern and western. • • • 
"I received in November, 1878, fresh instructions from yon to proceed to Georgia 
for the purpose of ascertaining whether I could find eggs from the last moths on any 
portion of the plant, and any farts bearing on the hibernation of the moth. On the 
plantations near Savannah I found that the worm was first noticed the current year 
on September 4. I found a large number of the chrysalides y< t on the plant on No- 
vember 10 to "J."). The nights were frosty and the leaf withered and s< ant. In places 
sheltered by trees the leaf was still green, and here I found (November lf>) a few cater- 
pillars not yet spun up. A large number of the chrysalides were empty; about 40 
percent, contained parasites. Le>s than a quarter of the chrysalides contained the 
undeveloped mot h. 
"Under your instructions I have visited the Georgia sea-islands during the end 
of November and beginning of December. J found that the worm had appeared this 
year in September as on the mainland, but later in the month. It had, also, not 
spread, and had attacked certain corners of the fields, where I now found the chrysa- 
lides. None of these contained undeveloped moths, but they were either empty or 
ichneumonized. There had been no second brood of worms on the islands, according 
to testimony collected by me, and which was borne out by my own observations. 
"As the result of my iate observations I may say that the fact is confirmed that 
ihe Cotton Worm passes the winter, when it survives at all, as a moth, and that the 
last fall worms do not leave the plant to web up. The full history 01 the w orm in 
Georgia can be made out when the country is fully explored in the spring and before 
the tirst appearance of the worm in numbers. It will then be made clear where the 
first large numbers of the worm come from; whether they ate the results of fresh in- 
vasions of the moth or the product of a tirst generation from eggs of hibernating indi- 
viduals. 
"Under your intelligent supervision of the inquiry, and with the facilities which 
you possess from different sect ions of t he South, 1 have no doubt that this important 
matter will receive final and full elucidation. 
"My thanks are due to Mr. Z. Baners, of Saint Catharine's Island ; Dr. W. S. Law- 
ton, of Savannah; Messrs. T. G. Holt, of Macon, Ga.; .1. K. KYdwine, Hull County, 
Georgia; E. C. Grier, Griswoldville, Jones County: J. Pinekney Thomas, Wayne's 
Bluff, Burke County, Georgia; State Geologist George A. Little, of Atlanta, Ga., and 
others, who have assisted me in my work. 
" Yours, respectfully, 
"A. R. GROTE. 
" Prof. C. V. Rii.ey, 
"Entomoluyifit, Department Agriculture." 
Starting south myself the latter part of August, I passed through Tennessee to 
Mitched County, in Southwest Georgia, and thence, during September, through the 
cotton sections of the southeastern part of that State and of the Carolinas and Vir- 
ginia. I was at this time made painfully aware of the hindering effects of the yellow 
fever. One can scarcely conceive of the panic and excitement that prevailed, even in 
regions where there was little or no danger. But a few weeks before in the thicker 
cotton counties of Alabama ami Georgia the prevailing topic of conversation, as I 
learned, was the work of the Cotton Worm. At the time of my visit its injuries were 
^forgotten in the all-absorbing subject of the epidemic. Cotton fields were neglected, 
^nd in sight of acres of stripped and spindling stalks one heard but the universal 
' refrain — yellow fever, yellow fever. It seriously interfered with my own plans, and 
obliged me to avoid the very Mississippi cotton fields which I desired most to visit. 
Notwithstanding this serious drawback to the present year's operations, much that 
is valuable and important has been learned. * * * 
In fact, our chief efforts during this first year as United States Ento- 
mologist were devoted to this investigation, and a large amount of mate- 
