[78] REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
1. This county was occupied by the Choctaw Indians till 1832, and was mostly set- 
tled up by the white people in 1833, and rapidly cleared up aDd planted largely in 
cotton. 
2. The first year qf the worms was in 1842 (so far as I know), when they stripped 
the foliage from the cotton in September. 
3. They are generally worse after a winter of even temperature, not very cold. Last 
winter was a very cold one, and the worms have worked about in patches through 
the two«past months, but not extensively damaging the cotton, though the weather 
has been very wet, and the moths are now appearing in considerable numbers. We 
have them in damaging numbers one or two years, and then an intermission of two or 
three years, and sometimes alternating in different sections of the county. 
4. Wet summers are much the most favorable for their multiplication. In dry, 
warm summers they do not multiply. 
5. By the middle of May, but generally not till June, in their earliest but small gen- 
erations. In 1873 the destructive brood — second or third generation — stripped the 
cotton of foliage in July and early in August ; usually not till the last of August and 
September. 
6. Tbey generally appear earliest in " bottom lands" and prairie, where adjoining 
thick-set wood lands. 
7. They hibernate in the moth state ; and also the very late-formed chrysalis exists in 
that state through the winter, where protected from severe cold by grass or other 
herbage or covering, and perhaps in the ground. 
8. All our insectivorous birds consume the worms, and the moths to some extent, 
but which are not out on the wing except at late evening and at night, or at a dark, 
cloudy evening. 
9. No methods to destroy the moths have proved effectual ; but fires attract them 
most, when some are burned or their wings disabled, aud molasses will stick and hold 
some when attracted by a candle standing in the plate or vessel. This is the only 
known means of destroying the moth of the boll-worm, aud preventing the great dam- 
age to the cotton crop by their more obscure depredations, and might be effectual to 
lessen them much by the persistent use of great numbers of these plates of molasses, 
with lamps or lanterns so made that they could fly into aud be burned, and thus de- 
stroying them before laying their eggs in the cotton blossom. But sugar or sirups do 
not perceptibly attract by themselves. 
10. These things are only useful in plates, when the moths are attracted by lights. 
11. Know of no flowers which attract the moth, except the cotton blossoms attract 
the moth of the boll-worm, in which it deposits the eggs, one in each blossom; and 
these blossoms are expanding from early June to September which perfect cotton, 
and thence on into October, but which are too date to mature. 
12. Know nothing of the influence of jute grown near cotton. 
13. Know nothing better than Paris green or cheaper than arsenic to destroy the 
worms, but have an essay, in pamphlet, published in 1874, on "The Texas Cotton 
Worm Destroyer," discovered and patented by J. D. Bramau and A. Robira, " which 
is a salt of arsenic that readily dissolves in cold water," " four ounces of which, dis- 
solved in 40 gallons of water, and costing 25 cents, and sprinkled over an acre of cotton 
with a watering-pot or sprinkling-machine, will effectually destroy the worms and 
preserve the cotton." Patented by Robert Renniein 1874. And they claim that it is 
better, safer, and cheaper than the other articles named. 
14. Have not known of any injurious effects from the poison to men or animals, but 
heard of some through want of caution. The cotton leaves are quickly crisped and 
killed by the application of more poison than is necessary to kill the worms or in too 
concentrated a form. 
15. The best methods of destroying the worms are given in the above answers and 
in my essay, and the most expeditious, with the cheapest, will be to use the poison 
in a dissolved form, and applied with a fountain hand-pump. 
16. The cost per acre to protect a crop of cotton by killing the worms with poison 
will be from 25 cents to $1 and about half a day's w r ork with the fountain hand-pump, 
to apply the poison in water, dissolved; or with sifters lined with muslin, to apply 
the poison in dry form, well mixed and incorporated with plaster or flour, when the 
cost oft Ik; flour may be added to the above-named cost, which was given only as the 
cost of the poison. What would be the cost of lamps, lantern traps, vessels, and 
material to destroy the moth, particularly that of the boll-worm, which does a \;isl 
amount of injury to cotton crops, or even to materially lessen the numbers, cannol 
now be estimated, as it has not been sufficiently tested. The fountain pump costs 
about $5. 
Respectfully, 
L. D. HOYT. 
Prof. c. v. Riley, 
