ANSWERS TO CIRCULAR NO. 7. 
[73] 
I hope what I have written above may prove acceptable to you. I have given you 
all the information I could which I could vouch for personally. Any future commu- 
nication from yon or your office will bo replied to fully and candidly. 
The Cotton Worms have made their annual appearance in our parish this year, but 
have done no general damage. Some few fields havo suffered, on alluvial lands, so far 
as I have heard. The summer has been very hot and dry. 
Very respe«tfnllv. your obedient servant, 
DOUGLAS If. HAMILTON. 
. C. V. Riley, Chief U. S. E. C. 
Evergreen, Ala., August 24, 1S79. 
I beg leave respectfully to submit the following answers to your circular (No. 7) 
concerning the Cotton Worm : 
1. About the year 1817. 
2. In 1825, or about eight years. 
3. It is most generally dreaded ;ifter a mild winter, but experience teaches that this 
fear is ill founded. It is probable that a greater number of the chrysalids survive a 
mild winter than a severe one, but the present season proves that they cannot all be 
destroyed by cold, for having passed through the severest winter since their advent, 
the worms are at this time (August 24) destroying the cotton in some localities, aud 
bid fair to make a clean sweep within the next two or three weeks. 
4. Wet springs and summers are decidedly more favorable to their production than 
dry ones. 
5. On or about the 26th of May, 1873. 
6. In moist, rich soil*, where the weed is most luxuriant. 
7. I know but little from actual observation. I have seen the chrysalids in the 
ground exposed by plowing, sometimes under turfs or logs, or anything that alfords 
protection from cold and wet. 
8. None. Every variety of birds feed upon them, but there are not enough birds in 
a State to devour all the worms on a single plantat ion. The Knuiish sparrow is the 
only bird that could be Introduced which would be available, and it is not considered 
practicable to try him. for the number required to do the work would require a vast 
amount of food at all times, mid of itself become a greater pest to the tanner than 
the worm. „ 
9. All •Horts in this direction have been fruitless. The writer is of the opinion that 
as soon as the moth emerges from the chrysalis it proceeds at once to deposit its eggs 
(of Which it contains a vast Dumber), and is not attracted by anything to be eaten 
until it has performed that function. They are attracted i>y any saccharine sub- 
stance, like sugar and water or molasses and water, but, for the reasons stated above, 
they are considered of 1 it t le value. Fires or lights will alao attract t hem, and, if not 
too expensive, might be more a veil able than poisons. Owing to the uncertainty of the 
time 01 their advent, and of the very short t ime n quired for the laying of their eggs, 
the plan of destroying by fin i can hardly be msfle available, however. 
10. It is immati rial whether the poison is contained in vessels or spread upon boards, 
trees, &c. ; they are as likely to find it at one place as another. The writer has seen 
myriads of them deal royed by dropping into evaporators used in making sirup. This, 
however, is never observed until late in the fall, alter the cotton is destroyed and the 
color of the moth is changed. The last crop of worms are black, or nearly so, and 
the moth springing from them is of a darker hue than the lirst seen, and is non-pro- 
ductive. Those coining from the green worm are brown, and supply all the eggs. 
11. T! ere are none known to the writer. 
12. I have no experience with jute, but have seen cotton grown among corn escape 
the ravages of the worm when allot her was destroyed. The writer does not favor the 
plan, however, practiced by many cotton planters, of crossing cotton with corn at from 
12 to 20 feet, inasmuch as the effect of retarding the progress of the worm is not suc- 
cessfully attained, and the corn thus made will little more than pay for the cotton 
lost, besides impeding the cultivation of t he cotton in case the corn is blown down or 
bent by wind (as happens as often as not). In the opinion of the w r riter, the better 
plan is to plant cotton in com : i. c., alter securing a stand of corn early in the spring, 
plant a hill of cotton between each two hills of corn, so what corn is made may be 
considered clear gain. If the corn is not bent, the cotton may be worked after the 
corn is ''laid by," and if it is. bent, so as to prevent the cultivation of the cotton, 
nothing is lost by having the cotton there. Of course this plan can only be made 
profitable ou good land, where the cotton will continue to grow after the fodder is 
pulled. The writer saw last year, however, on poor land, more than 200 pounds of 
cotton per acre gathered from land where 15 bushels of corn were grown, and this 
with one additional working. Moreover, cotton grown alone immediately by the side 
of this corn and cotton was entirely destroyed by worms, while that grown with the corn 
was untouched. 
