MEANS OF DESTEOYING THE MOTH. 
133 
allured. The smearing bus the advantage over the use in pans and bot- 
tles, in that fewer beneficial insects are destroyed. 
We cannot say that these experiments have led us to be in any way 
sanguine of substantial benefit flowing from this mode of killing the 
moths in the autumn, which is the season when they are most easily so 
destroyed, for they do not seem to care much for such baits except when 
they cannot get their more natural food in the shape of saccharine ex- 
udations. The fact that early or summer ripening peaches are not in- 
jured — a fact that is well attested by many correspondents — also indi- 
cates that the moths do not care so much for fruits even, so long as they 
can obtain nourishment in the cotton fields, and so long as they are not 
congregating in numbers. 
Experiments made in the summer reason with these artificial baits in- 
dicate that a much smaller percentage of moths is allured thereto, and 
while there can be no question of our ability to kill a certain number in 
this manner, it would prove a most expensive remedy if used on a suffi- 
ciently large scale to materially reduce their numbers. In fact, we have 
become convinced that there is very little use in attempting to destroy 
the parent moth in the latter part of the season. In what has been pre- 
viously said on the natural history and the hibernation of the species, 
it has been made pretty clear that the great bulk of the moths are nat- 
urally destined to perish in any event, so that the labor is largely thrown 
away. 
Until, therefore, we discover some baits that shall have a greater at- 
traction for the moths than the natural sweets they feed upon, there is 
little to expect from this mode of warfare. There is a season, however, 
when the use of these baits is strongly to be recommended, and, oddly 
enough, it is the season when nobody thinks of using them. It is in this 
as it is with the lights; the greatest good will result from attracting 
and destroying the first moths in spring after they issue from their win- 
to quarters. Every female killed at that season is equivalent to the 
destruction of several hundred worms later in the season; whereas not 
one in a thousand, and perhaps not one in a hundred thousand, of the 
Moths ki.Jed in autumn would, in the natural course of events, have sur- 
vived to beget progeny. Concerted action is just as necessary here as 
in the use of lamps. 
As it has been proven beyond doubt that sweets poisoned with Paris 
green or London purple do not lose their attractive [tower to the moth, 
and that such poisons are taken up by the moth, it appeared most de- 
sirable to poison the glands on the cotton plant, which, as we have 
seen, furnish, with their saccharine secretion, one of the principal food 
supplies of the moth. Experiments on plants covered with netting, and 
others kept in breeding cages, made it certain that the moth can be 
killed by poisoning the under side of the leaves, the moths feeding on 
the poisoned glands. So long, however, as there were no means known 
to apply the poison from below, this plan could not be adopted ; but, 
