100 
AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
spread open, it may be safely concluded that it has been attacked by 
the worm, and will soon fall to the ground and perish. The older 
bolls, however, remain on the plant; and, it many of the fallen buds 
or bolls be closely examined, the greater portion of them will be 
found to have been previously pierced by the worm, the tew excep- 
tions being caused either by the minute punctures of some of the 
plant-bugs, from rain, or other atmospheric influences. 1 hose injured 
by the worm can be distinguished by a small hole on the outside 
where it entered, and which, when cut open, will generally be found 
partially filled with small fragments of fceces. 
When very young, the boll-worm is able to suspend itself by a 
thread, if blown or brushed from the boll or leaf on which it rested. 
After changing its skin several times, and attaining its full size, the 
caterpillar descends into the ground, where it makes a silky cocoon, 
interwoven with particles of gravel and earth, m which it changes 
into a bright chestnut-brown chrysalis. The worms, which entered 
the ground in September and October, appeared as perfect moths 
about the end of November. . , 
A boll-worm, which was bred from an egg found upon the mvolu- 
cel, or ruffle of the flower-bud, grew to rather more than a twentieth 
of an inch in length by the third day, when it shed its skin, having 
eaten in the meantime nothing but the parenchyma, or tender, fleshy 
substance from the outside. On the fifth day, it bored or pierced 
through the outer calyx, and commenced feeding upon the mnci , and, 
on the sixth day, it again slied its skin, and had increased to about 
the tenth of an inch in length. On the tenth day, it again shed its 
skin, ate the interior of the young flower-bud, and had grown much 
larger. On the fourteenth day, it, for the fifth time, shed its skin, at- 
tacked and ate into a young boll, and had increased to thirteen- 
twentieths of an inch in length. From this time, it ate nothing but 
the inside of the boll, and on the twentieth day the skin was again 
shed, and it had grown to the length of an inch and one-tenth, but 
unfortunately died before completing its final change. 
These moths probably lay their eggs on some other plants when the 
cotton is inaccessible, as a young boll-worm was found this season in 
the corolla of the flower- of a squash, devouring the pistils and sta- 
mens ; and, as there is a striking similarity between the boll-worm and 
the corn-worm moth, described in the Agricultural Report for 1854, 
in the appearance, food and habits, .alike in the caterpillar, chrysalis, 
and perfect state, it will perhaps prove that the boll-worm may be 
the voun< r of the corn-worm moth, and that the eggs are deposited 
on the young boll, as the nearest substitute for green corn, and 
placed upon them only when the corn has become too old and hard 
for their food. , . . n , ■, ■, 
Colonel B. A. Sorsby, of Columbus, in Georgia, lias bred both 
these insects, and declares them to be the same; and, moreover, when, 
according to his advice, the corn was carefully wormed on two or 
three plantations, the boll-worms did not make their appearance 
that season on thq cotton, notwithstanding that, on neighboring 
plantations, they committed great ravages. 
The worms, or caterpillars, have six pectoral, eight, ventral and 
