20 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
c 
DEVON COW, HELENA. 
Calved June Sth, 1851. Bred by and the property of C. S. Wainwright, The Meadows, near 
RMnebeck, N. V. 
COTTON-=.CUT-WOIlM— UUST-.^llOT. 
The Cotton crop of this State will be unusually short. 
The long drought of the summer caused the weeds to be 
small and the forms to shed, and the cut- worm in the 
spring, the army or grass-worm of the summer, and the 
rot in the fail have materially diminished the crop of this 
year as compared with the last. 
Prominent among the ills the cotton plant is heir to, is 
the cut worm. It is the same worm that annoys the gar- 
dens. Last year it destroyed about one third of my cot 
ton crop, and was equally attentive to that of a friend and 
neighbor, on an adjoining plantation. No one else in the 
neighborhood has been sensibly injured by it, I then se- 
lected a dozen of those worms and fed them in a glass jar; 
they ate voraciously, and after attaining their full size, 
and being thoroughly gorged, they lay stupid and passive, 
under the process of transformation to the chrysalis state, 
in which they are incapable of locomotion. After re- 
maining in this state some two or three weeks, they came 
out moths or butterflies; then laid their eggs in great 
quantities on the under side of thecotton leaf, and died. 
The eggs hatched a day or two after they were laid, and 
the young brood commenced a vigorous attack on the leaf 
which nursed them. The cycle of their lives, from the 
egg to the moth, is about six weeks, varying a few days, 
according to circumstances, such as the weather and 
food. 
This year, these worms commenced their work of de- 
struction on my ph^ntation and in my immediate neigh- 
borhocd about the last of April, when the stand of cotton 
was fairly up ; and from the quantity, then to be found 
around the young plant, threatened, in a very short time, 
utterly to destroy the stand. In consultation with my 
friend and fellow-sufferer of the last year, we agreed that, 
as we had then failed by the use of the hoe and plow to 
check their progress, the only effective mode of protecting 
our crops was to hunt the vwrms and kill them. My hands 
engaged in this work for a few mornings, but as the 
worms appeared to be doing but little injury, we quit it. 
They were grown, and going into the chrysalis state. 
Having gained some knowledge of their habits, and fully 
believing that we were to have another swarm dui’ingthe 
season, I had the fields infested with them cut out to a 
stand, and the cotton put in first rate condition for grow- 
ing off rapidly, so as to be beyond the reach of injury 
from the coming generation. Thousands of the chrysalis 
were exposed by the scraper and hoe at the depth of about 
two inches from the surface, and the hands in working 
were directed to destroy them. 
A little more than a month after, the worms appeared in 
great force, but most abundantly in cuts where they had 
not been before noticed or hunted. All hands were at 
once set to work in gathering them, and kept at it from 
early dawn until breakfast every day for three weeks. 
The process was very simple. Before sunrise the worms 
were on the cotton, and easily caught and bagged in tin 
cups and gourds ; as the day advanced, they hid in the 
earth at the roots, leaving unmistakeable signs of their 
presence on the young plant; and thus directed, the hands 
caught them by merely grabbling in the loose earth. Im- 
mense numbers were destroyed in this way ; I am right 
sure not less than ten bushels from first to la.st. At the 
end of our labors, their numbers w^ere so diminished that 
I felt no further uneasiness about them. The places cut 
down by them were replanted about the lOih of June, and 
J have now a pretty fair average crop from the seed then 
planted. I am quite sure that by persevering in this 
course of extermination, I saved my crop from almost total 
destruction. 
So much for my'experience with the cut worm. I have 
given it to you in the hope that it might be somewhat ’ i- 
teresting to some of your readers, but more especially to 
