CHAPTEK XVI. 
THE BOLL WORM. 
(Hcliothis armigt ra Hiibner). 
Order Lepidoptera : family N<»< tuid^;. 
[Platefl III and IV). 
INTRODUCTORY. 
The Boll Worm may very appropriately i><* classed as among the 
foremost of the first-class injurious insects. The amount of damage 
which it does in the course of a year to one crop or another is very 
great. In many parts of the South it is the chief enemy known to cot- 
ton; while there can be little doubt that the coin crop suffers more 
from its attacks, year in and year out, than from any other one enemy, 
the chinch bug not excepted. With tomatoes, peas, and beans, though 
the general injury is not great, yet occasionally the crops Oi certain 
sections suffer very severely. The annual drain upon the resources of 
the country from this one insect may be illustrated by a few quotations 
from Southern newspapers and from the correspondence of the Depart- 
ment. 
Judge Johnson, of Holly Springs, Miss., Bays in his report : "Of all 
the injuries to cotton in this latitude none can compare with the Boll 
Worm, for it is universal and a regular annual visitor. 
"This worm is far more injurious in this part of Mississippi than the 
Cotton Army-worm or any other insect pest." — [Prof. 1*. W. Jones, 
< txford, Miss. 
u From all directions come discouraging reports of the cotton crop. 
The Boll Worm has done its work of devastation so thoroughly that 
there is now no hope of a greater yield than one bale to eight acres, and 
in some few cases proprietors will not put pickers to work or give their 
crops further attention." — [Statistical Report from Grayson County, 
Texas, KSSO. 
44 Examination into cotton fields in different portious of this county 
satisfy cotton men and farmers that the damage of the Boll Worm will 
reduce the yield of the fields examined fully four-fifths. They are re- 
ported as ravaging the plant in Denton, and at work on crops raised on 
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