The Cotton Worm; Summary of Its Natural History, with an Account of the Enemies, and the Best Means of Controlling It - Being a Report of the Progress (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1880 edition. Excerpt: ...to give adhesiveness to the liquid will hold equally true of London purple, but the latter has in many respects a great advantage over the former, especially in its greater cheapness, being a mere refuse which, from its poisonous nature, was a drug to the manufacturers and had to be gotten rid of by being dumped long distances out at sea. This substance can be put upon the market at the bare cost of transportation. It can be sold in New York at the low rate of 6 cents per Ib., and there is no reason why it should not be obtained at any of the large shipping points in the South at figures ranging between 7 and 10 cents a pound. This means virtually that the cost of destroying the worms by this powder is reduced to such a minimum as to depend mainly on the labor and the other ingredients or dilutents employed; in other words, that, while the planters, as heretofore, were obliged to pay as much as $1 for the first cost of the active poison needed for one acre, and never less than 15 cents, he may now obtain it for from 3 to 5 cents. London purple has this farther advantage over other arsenical compounds hitherto employed: Its finely-pulverized condition seems to give it such penetrating power that, when used in liquid, it tints the leaves so that cotton treated with it is readily distinguished at a distance, the general effect being quite marked as compared with any of the other poisons similarly applied. It seems also to be more effectually absorbed into the substance of the leaf, and is therefore more persistent. At the same time experience shows that it does not injure the squares any more than Paris green. Pyrethrum Powder. The insecticide and insectifuge qualities of the dried and finelypowdered flower-heads of different species of...