REPORTS OF CONSULS AND CONSULAR AGENTS. 
No. 42.] United States Consulate, 
Pernambuco, March 20, 1880. 
Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith my report to the Entomological Com- 
mission on the cotton culture and the iusects affecting it injuriously. 
I rind it very difficult to get auy reliable information on That subject. One corre- 
spondent from whom I expected a full account has failed IPC entirely. 
Such as 1 have I forward, fearing that it will give but very little satisfaction to the 
Commission. 
I am, sir, vour obedient servant, 
ANDREW CONE, 
United States Con*ul. 
Hon. William Hunter, 
Second Assistant Sicrctary of State, )Ya*hingtt>n, 1>. C. 
Consulate of the United States, 
Pernambuco, March 18, 1880. 
Dear Sir : Your letter of inquiry in regard to cotton culture and the insects affect- 
ing it injuriously, is before^me, and I do myself the honor to reply. 
You say, "I find that it is absolutely necessary for the solution of some of the more 
important questions to get a better knowledge than we have so far been able to ac- 
quire of cotton culture and the workings of this insect in Central and South Amer- 
ica," &c, and you think the consuls at various points therein meutioned might give 
the Commission valuable aid in this part of its work. 
Permit me to ask, with all due deference, whet her men in t hese benighted countries, 
centuries behind t he United States in ski 1 1. knowledge, and development, can enlighten 
the scientist at home : nevertheless, I have d • w hat 1 could and forward the result. 
I have tried in vain, through my Brazilian correspondence, so slow in transmission, 
U> inform myself on this as well as other matters relating to Brazil; but it seems 
nearly as difficult to keep one's self posted in t he progress of affairs here as it is to ob- 
tain Information from the interior <>r Asia. 
I wish it were my luck to discover all about the persecutors of the cotton plant, 
and the remedy for these pests. I should be only too happy to know how to combat 
these enemies to the greater prosperity of the United States; to exterminate t hese 
devastators, without which I believe the annual cotton crop of our count ry might be 
doubled. 
There is no particular skill required in the cult h ation of cotton in Brazil. The 
seeds once put into the ground will soon become plants, and then they only require 
weeding once or twice a vear, according to the season: the more rain rendering the 
more weeding necessary, of course. 
The plant in general use in.these provinces is the perennial, which grows into a 
shrub and product's several years. The largest crop is taken the third year, when it- 
deteriorates, and is not worth gathering alter the fifth y< ar. 
The herbaceous is of a poorer quality, and is only used because it produces 
quickly. Neither variety is indigenous to the Mil of Brazil. 
As to the culture of cotton in IN rnainbuco and the other provinces subject to this 
consulate, viz., (Vara. Rio (irande do Norte, 1'arahiba, and Alagoas, no correct esti- 
mate can be given of the amount of land or acreage uiub r cultivation. No planter 
or owner of a fazenda ever knows how many acres of land he possesses or how much 
land constitutes an acre, but ow ns w hat is embraced in certain metes or bounds. 
The cultivation of cotton is rapidly decreasing here, the price being too low and 
the export duties too exorbitant for a protitable business. 
The number of bales entered at the port of IVrnainhueo for the year ending Sep- 
tember 30, l^T'J, w as 335,180 bales of about 180 pounds each, while the number of 
bales entered for the year ending September 30, 1879, was only 30, 168, planters hav- 
ing turned their attention more to the cultivation of sugar-cane, which pays them 
better. 
Most of the districts of the different provinces are adapted to the cultivation of 
cotton even on theserras, w here there is abundance of rain. It will grow on almost 
any soil, but to the greatest perfection in yellow or red clay, the latter being pre- 
ferred. 
The foes most fatal to the cotton plant are the dilferent kinds of caterpillars, which 
in some years increase to a frightful extent, destroying entirely the crop, and even 
the pasturage— the absence of regular rains, and " the blight." The blight is caused 
by cold nights, or cold rains coming unseasonably in contact with the warm soil, after 
which the sun burns and scorches up the pods and even the small germs of the plant. 
With the blight vanishes all the hopes of the planter. 
The Cotton Worm or caterpillar, Anomis jcylina, particularly desctibed in your let- 
ter, attacks the plant in these provinces. It appears simultaneously with the other 
varieties at the beginning of the rainy season and never alone. It comes and disap- 
pears with the rain. 
