68 
AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
habits, or watched them with attention, when busily engaged in 
searching under every leaf, or in every fissure of the bark, for their 
insect prey. 
INSECTS FOUND UPON THE STALK. 
I 
THE CUT-WORM. 
< 
I have not been able this year (1855) to procure specimens of the 
worms which cut off the young plants early in the season, (PI. 
VI., fig. 1,) as I arrived in the region of cotton-fields after their 
ravages had ceased; but, from the authority of able and scientific 
planters, I am induced to believe that they are very similar in habits 
and appearance to many of the cut-worms of the gardens, which 
penetrate the earth close to a plant, and at night emerge from 
their retreats to gnaw it off at or near the ground. 
A gentleman in Florida, who had been troubled with this pest, in- 
formed me that a particular spot of four or five acres in his field had 
been literally thronging with cut-worms, so that most of the plants 
were either eaten off or destroyed, and that, finally, fearing the loss 
of his whole crop, he turned into the enclosure some twenty or thirty 
young pigs, which soon discovered the worms, rooted them up in 
great numbers, and fattened on the unaccustomed diet. The cotton 
was not injured, as the pigs were too young to root deep enough to 
destroy the plants. The pigs remained where the tvorms were to be 
found, never troubling any other portions of the field, and their strong 
E owers of scent enabled them to detect their insect prey even when 
uried in the earth. 
Should the moths of this cut-worm be like those of their congeners of 
the North, and attracted by light, it might be well to use a lantern 
like that already described, or to ascertain the favorite substance upon 
which they feed, and poison them, as suggested in the case of the to- 
bacco-fly. 
INSECTS FOUND ON THE LEAF 
THE COTTON-LOUSE. 
(Aphis ?) < 
When the cotton-plant is very young and tender, it is particularly 
subject to the attacks of the cotton-louse, (PI. VI. fig. 2,) which, 
by means of its piercer, penetrates the outer coating, or parenchyma 
of the leaf or tender shoots, and sucks the sap from the wound. Hie 
under part of the leaves or young shoots are the places mostly selected, 
and the constant punctures and consequent drainage of sap enfeebles 
