[74] REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
13. Nothing. From experience iu the use of a tea or decoction of the China berry 
on cabbage, to drive away worms, bugs, &c, the writer is induced to believe that tin* 
same might be used with success on cotton. It is well known that all insects or ver- 
min are averse to the taste or proximity to this plant, and the writer has uo doubt 
that a thorough application of it to cotton, made at the proper time, would drive olf 
the worms. I will not undertake to say that it is practicable, for the labor of making 
the tea and applying it may overbalance the profit. Iu other respects, however, ir 
has the advantage of being cheap and harmless. 
14. I have seen the/ cotton plant scorched and ruined by using the poisons in too* 
concentrated a form, but have seen no injury to persous or animals. Being a deadly 
poison, however, the Paris green will certainly kill animals as well as worms if taken 
into the stomach. It acts as a poison also when introduced iuto the system through 
the blood, and should. consequently be handled with a great deal of care. 
15. Of the means yet discovered, no agent has the advantage of Paris green. 
16. For the protection of cotton of average size of weed, an outlay of about $2 or 
$2.25 per acre will be incurred in this locality, including the cost of the poison, flour 
or gypsum for mixing, and labor of applying. In places where water can be had 
without too much labor the cost might be a little less; but comparatively few farmers 
have this natural advantage. 
The writer takes occasion, in this connection, to suggest a solution of the " cater- 
pillar question" in a very few words. Let every cotton planter iu the South adopt 
a system of reduced acreage, high manuring, and thorough cultivation. Let him 
plant only such lands as will return a large yield, say one, two, or three bales per 
acre, and he can afford to apply Paris green and save his cotton. Of course, this can 
be done iu most sections of the South only by high manuring; but no farmer should 
plant more cotton than he can make remunerative. If he can manure but one acre, 
let him plant but one. This system would not only save the cotton from destruction 
by worms, but would immeasurably improve the financial condition of the South and 
the whole country. The farmer, having less cotton planted, would have more land 
to devote to grain-crops and stock-raising, and after one or two years the market value 
of cotton would be so enhanced that he would receive as much money for his few 
bales as he now does for his many. 
Very respectfullv. 
ROBT. A. LEE. 
C. V. Riley, Chief U. S. E. C. 
Henderson, Tex., November 27, 1878. 
Iu reference to our Cotton Caterpillar, it is hard to drive to an uncontested conclu- 
sion, as there are almost as many opinions as there are cotton farmers in the South. 
I am a native of Louisiana, sixty-four years old, and have been growing cotton the 
greater portion of my life; still I know but little that is worth telling in reference to 
this terrible Southern pest. The first Cotton Caterpillar I ever saw was in Holmes 
County, Mississippi, in 184G. The secord time I saw them, in numbers worthy of 
notice, was during our last unfortunate war, 1SG4. Since then they have appeared 
annually (more or less) in all the Cotton States. They appear to he, migrator;/, but many 
deny this, and support their views with some plausibility. But we are taught by 
experience that they do not appear simultaneously over the whole country, but annu- 
ally appear in the extreme southern portions of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and 
Texas. We often hear of them four to six weeks before they raise, hatch, and accu- 
mulate sufficient numbers to reach the northern portions of these States. The first - 
comer (or parent) is a small yellowish fly, resembling somewhat our usual summer- 
evening candle fly. Whether from instinct or not, I cannot tell — but I will call it 
instinct — the first fly visitors always deposit their eggs in the center of each field. 
Why so in every instance, if it is not to place himself, as well as his first brood, as far 
away from birds and other enemies which might annoy them near to the forest trees 
and woods ? 
Again, they invariably deposit the eggs in the top — yes, in the bud — of each stalk 
or plant, for there the little embryo leaf is full of downy fuzz, in which the eggs lie 
closely bedded, elevated high to the dew, and warm sun, and soon hatch. Now we 
have the worm, so small as to be almost unobservable, but safely secured in his downy 
bed, which down is his food for a day or two, when he begins to feed on the yet small 
and tender leaf, and eats day and night until he web« up, to reappear another lly. 
This is our first crop ; and from first observation of the lly until the second crop ap- 
pears is about fifteen 1o twenty days. This second crop proceed as the first, deposit- 
ing their eggs in the bud, and this time extend their dominions to three-fourths and 
sometimes over the whole field, maturing asbefore, giving the third crop, which soon 
finishesthe last leaf of tin; young fruit. I will add that many suppose this last crop, 
after devouring the crop, deposit their eggs in old hollow trees, old dry fence-rails, 
dry weeds, or other dry rubbish, to slumber till another fear, and then reappear. This 
