DESTRUCTION OF THE COTTON CROP BY INSECTS. 
341 
DESTRUCTION OF THE COTTON CROP 
BY INSECTS. 
The caterpillar, cotton worm, cotton moth ( Noc- 
Ha xylina ), or chenille of the French West Indies, 
Guiana, &c., has utterly blighted the hopes of the 
cotton planter for the, present year, and produced 
most anxious fears for the future. I have heard 
from the greater part of the cotton-growing region— 
the news is all alike—the worm has destroyed the 
crop. I have no idea that any considerable portion 
of any State will escape. 
This destroyer has cut off the crops, in different 
parts of the country, several times, but has never 
before appeared so early in the season, the plant 
being at the same time so unusually backward. In 
1840, these insects did not appear, in Southern 
Mississippi, until just before the first frost. In 
1844 they commenced the work of destruction about 
the 1st of September. During both of these years, 
the crop was well matured, the fields being as white 
as at any period whatever, after the worms had 
stripped off the leaves. The present year, the crop 
is unusually backward; at least four weeks later 
than usual. W e have but just commenced picking; 
usually beginning about the last week of July, or 
the first of August. At this moment, every field 
within this region of country, say south of Vicks¬ 
burg, is stripped of everything but the stems, the 
larger branches, and a few of the first bolls, already 
too hard for the worm’s power of mastication. 
The full-grown bolls, not yet become hard, are 
completely eaten out, a circumstance I have never 
heard of but once before, in 1825—(See Southern 
Agriculturist, vol. 1, page 207). The fields present 
a most melancholy appearance. Looking from the 
bluff at Natchez, across the river, to those fine 
plantations back of Vidalia, nothing is to be seen 
but the brown withered skeleton of the plant. 
The natural history of an insect so destructive to 
a crop of such great value to the world, must cer¬ 
tainly be of the utmost importance to the growers of 
that crop. In fact, it is indispensable that a united 
general effort should be made to check their in¬ 
crease, if indeed that be possible, if cotton-growing 
is to be continued. And to do this, we must have 
a thorough knowledge of their nature and habits. 
Although this caterpillar has been but too well 
known to the planters, in different parts of the 
South, ever since 1793, when they first appeared in 
Georgia, their ravages have been partial, and their 
appearance at long intervals. No longer ago than 
1834, Mr. Spalding states (Southern Agriculturist, 
vol. 8, page 42) that “ these destructive visitations, 
judging from the past, may be expected once in 
about seven years.” In this part of the country, 
the belief was so general that they only came once 
in four years, that few would believe that the cater¬ 
pillar was really amongst us. The more so, as 
during the first eight or ten days of their life, of 
such weather as we have had this summer, they, 
like the silk-worm, eat comparatively little. After 
that, they consume two or three times their bulk in 
a day, and will devastate a field, however large, in 
three days of warm weather. Seven years after 
their first appearance in Georgia, “ they commenced 
the work of devastation in South Carolina. In ! 
1804, the crop, which would have been devoured 
by them, was, with the enemy, effectually destroyed 
by the hurricane of that year. In 1825 (between 
1804 and 1825, their depredations were only occa¬ 
sional, and then confined to particular fields) the 
visit of the worm was renewed, and its ravages 
were universal and complete. In 1827, ’29, ’33, 
’34, ’40, ’41, and ’43, the Lower Parishes generally, 
in particular locations, suffered greatly by its depre¬ 
dations. The injury that has been done by the 
caterpillar is almost incredible. In one week they 
have denuded of its foliage every stalk in the largest 
field. In the Bahamas, between March and Sep¬ 
tember, 1788, no less than 280 tons of cotton, on a 
moderate scale, were devoured by this worm. 
Among the causes of failure of the crop in that 
quarter, as ascertained by answers of the most in¬ 
telligent and experienced planters to questions pro¬ 
posed by the House of Assembly, the most promi¬ 
nent is the destruction by the chenille. The same 
cause produced the abandonment of the gossypium 
culture in several of the West India Islands.”* 
In Guiana, the chenille has greatly lessened the 
amount of cotton made. For an interesting, though 
somewhat erroneous and speculative account of 
their ravages there, and other matters connected 
with their appearance and disappearance, preven¬ 
tives and checks to be used, &c., see the Edinburgh 
Ency., Article—Cotton. 
In the Southwest, they have appeared at intervals 
ever since 1804. I cannot learn, how T ever, that 
they have ever done serious injury to the crops be¬ 
fore the present year, except on Red River. There 
they have paid their visits more frequently, and in 
greater numbers^ greatly lessening the value of 
those splendid cotton-lands, and almost compelling 
their abandonment. They have never, before this 
season, commenced the work of destruction, else¬ 
where, until so late in the year, that the cotton was 
too well matured to be greatly injured, except by 
the trashing of the fibre from the excrement and 
scraps of leaves dropped, and the numerous chry¬ 
salides wound up in it. Neither was a third crop 
of worms produced, to occasion the general, whole¬ 
sale destruction their early coming has caused 
this year. 
It was almost amazing to see the perfect igno¬ 
rance of the nature of such a scourge, displayed by 
the editors of both city and country papers, in their 
assurances to their readers, that “ the alarm excited 
by the appearance of the army worm (as they 
almost all erroneously called it) might now be laid 
aside, as their advices from the country stated that 
they had done less harm than was at first appre¬ 
hended.” They were fast disappearing as cater¬ 
pillars, to re-appear as moths in eight or nine 
days, and leave, each pair of them, a progeny of 
from 500 to 1,000 ! 
The parent of these destructive myriads has been 
fully described by Say, at page 203 of vol. 1 of the 
Southern Agriculturist, to which the reader is re¬ 
ferred. The greater number of your readers will, 
perhaps, better understand my plain, farmer-like 
account of them. 
The moth is about three-fourths of an inch in 
length, and of nearly the same breadth at the points 
of the wings, when at rest; the color an ashen-grey, 
* Seabrook’s Memoir on the Cotton Plant; and 
Edwards’ West Indies. 
