ANSWERS TO CIRCULAR NO. 7. [91] 
when bis lands arc in good tilth and the work will prove advantageous to the plant 
cultivated, will never have his cotton injnred by the invasion of the Cotton Worm. 
I deem it unnecessary to go into detail, as my theory and plans have been elaborated 
in previous correspondence. 
I have the honor to be, vours, respectfullv, 
E. H. ANDERSON. 
Prof. C. V. Riley, Chief U. S. E. C. 
[Dr. Anderson's theory, referred to in the above report, and as set forth in an exten- 
sive correspondence, may be thus stated: In 185c*, in the month of July, on visiting 
his cotton held early in the morning, he found his overseer running a number of plows 
on a hill-side adjoining bottom land, where the soil was wet. He ordered the plows 
to be stopped, believing that the work would fire the cotton and canse it to shed, and 
perhaps injure the land by baking the wet sod in the hot sun. In ten days the worm 
was discovered in the cotton, and in twenty days there was not a leaf or young boll 
to be found upon it, and what especially surprised him was that the worms did not 
touch adjoining cotton or cross the plowed furrows. Since that time he has often 
witnessed a similar occurrence, and others have had a like experience, so that he 
gradually came to consider that there was cause and effect. He made experiments 
which seemed to confirm that belief, and finally reached the conclusion that either 
the moth, unobserved, had deposited her eggs upon the stalks, or the eggs tf the pre- 
vious season had fallen to the ground with the leaf of the plant and, being protected 
by the detritus, had survived the winter. To use his own language: 
" Under Ordinary circumstances, from the albuminous nature of the egg, it would 
be affected by heat and moisture naturally : that is, by solar action on rain and dew, 
creating vapor, which quickens it into life, by inducing fermentation and putrefact ion, 
without which no egg could be hatched ami no genu vivified. Under the influence 
of cold these chemical forces would be dormant, and the embryo or germ would re- 
main quiescent. The necessary atBMWphetic conditions do not recur annually for the 
speedy propagation of the Anomin, and hence we do not have them in destructive 
•lumbers except in propitious seasons. * " * It is a fact, patent to all practical 
farmers, that, if their land is plowed while wet or too wet for good tilth, the corn or 
the cotton, as the case maybe, is injured thereby — tired, as it is termed: the corn 
turning yellow and being arrested in its growth, while tlx- cotton sheds its leaves and 
droops. Why is this? I should say because the clod is exposed to rapid solar evapo- 
ration, and the hot steam damages the plants, through its respiratory organs, and im- 
pedes the normal functions of all of its organs by disturbing the healthy equilibrium 
of the air. That an abnormal degree of heat is produced by this process is proved by 
t he application of f he thermometer, as I know by experiment : and every farmer knows 
that the hottest and most oppressive work is plowing wet land under a hot sun." It 
cannot need proof to show that when by plowing you disturb the capillarity of the 
earth while damp, abnormal heat is produced by the more rapid evaporation of the 
upheaved soil. This is as certainly true as that a shower, by restoring or re-establish- 
ing capillarity, will cool down the earth. 
'• Now, my theory is that the damp artificial heat produced by the process of plowing 
wet land is the most favorable of all conditions for hatc hing speedily the eggs of the 
insects, and especially when you add to this the extrication of ammoniacal gases, w huh 
under such circumstances must be more abundantly evolved. This I hold to be the 
solution of the mystery of speedy gem-ration in the wetter portion of cotton fields." 
The p'an of prevention Dr. Anderson proposes on this theory is, never to run the 
plow in May or June south of his latitude, or in July or August farther north, when 
the land is wet and not in good condition for plowing. If there are frequent rams* 
he believes it matters little when or how the plowing is done ; " for so long as the rain 
continues the necessary physical conditions cannot be produced — shower succeeding 
shower in rapid succession keeps the temperature of both air and earth cooled down 
and is inimical to the worm. When, however, showers at longer intervals occur, and 
the temperature is high, and the plowing produces rapid evaporation, and the plow- 
man, reeking with sweat, pants for a breathed' pure, dry, fresh air, then the Jvomis, 
nurtured into life by its genial surroundings, commences its revels, and in a short while 
the luxuriant cotton is converted into bare and blackened stalks." 
"You must make cotton as you make hay ; that is, while the sun shines. The dili- 
gent farmer who keeps even with his work can always afford, without detriment to 
his crop, to let his plows rest until he can do good work, but if plow you must, to kill 
grass, and the rain won't stop, throw your furrows into the middle of your rows and 
not to your cotton, as by this process the danger of developing the worm is less, and 
no injury is done to your plant. 
Dr. Anderson, nevertheless, admits that "a few of the insects are annually hatched 
by a natural process: enough to perpetuate the species." A similar theory to this 
one of Dr. Anderson's Is held by a number of planters, founded, of course, on the ob. 
