DIFFERENT PREVENTIVE MEASURES. 
121 
This same idea forcibly occurred to us on our first visit to the South ; 
but upon suggesting it and urging it to experienced planters, they in- 
variably replied that the cotton plant forms such a long tap-root and is 
so very sensitive to removal or transplanting, that the method becomes 
impracticable. The only way in which cotton plants could be success- 
fully transplanted would be from small pots, and such mode is precluded 
on account of the expense, though paper bags, it seems to us, might in 
many instances be successfully used lor this purpose. Careful and fre- 
quent cultivation, which, moreover, has the tendency to disturb and 
knock off the worms, will materially assist in producing a crop before 
these appear in force; and such well cultivated fields, while they are 
subject to the attacks very early in the season, will, at the critical pe- 
riod, be least injured. 
Topping the cotton is recommended and practiced in some sections to 
hasten maturity, and while it will no doubt help to produce the desired 
effect, the labor necessary would hardly be repaid by the success, since 
it includes the loss of the top crop. Where done in order to destroy the 
eggs of Aletia, the labor is more or less wasted, as only a small propor- 
tion of the eggs are laid on the top leaves during the season when the 
chief injury is being done. 
Every other means that will give the cotton plant an early and 
vigorous growth, e.g., rich manuring, or soaking the seed, before plant- 
ing, in sulphuric acid, ought to be employed, and will assist in prevent- 
ing the ravages of the pest. 
Taking the opposite view, Dr. Phares has suggested that by sys- 
tematically deferring the planting of cotton till the end of May, or until 
all the hibernating moths had perished without finding food for their 
issue, and then planting some early-maturing variety, we might entirely 
prevent the injuries of the worm. This would be an excellent sugges- 
tion could the planter know beforehand that it would be necessary, 
and were there not decided advantages, as just set forth, in getting 
early maturity. 
While it has been believed that the long staple cotton is more injured 
by the worm than the short staple, yet the belief is by no means general, 
and there seems to exist no variety of cotton which, for its comparitive 
immunity from the attacks of the worm, deserves to be cultivated in 
preference to other varieties ; nor have we at present any reasonable 
hope of producing, by careful selection of seed, a variety which is less 
subject to injury, a process which, if possible, would require many years 
to bring forth any noticeable results. 
For several years past a paragraph has been going the rounds of the 
newspapers of the South, to the effect that a planter in Texas had pro- 
duced, after many years of experiment, a " worm -proof cotton," by 
hybridizing cotton with a certain weed, and that he was willing to sell 
his secret to the Government for a handsome sum. We have not seen 
this " worm-proof cotton," nor can we learn that any trustworthy planter 
