an the
third, and the first pair are shorter and slenderer than the second--a
state of things approaching that in the full grown cotton worm, though
the difference in size in the former case is not nearly so marked as in
the latter. This method of walking is lost with the first or second
molt. There is nothing remarkable about these young larvae. They seem to
be thicker in proportion to their length than the young cotton worms,
and they have not so delicate and transparent an appearance. Their heads
are black and their bodies seem already to have begun to vary in color.
The body above is furnished with sparse, stiff hairs, each arising from
a tubercle. I have often watched the newly hatched boll while in the
cotton fields. When hatched from an egg which had been deposited upon a
leaf, they invariably made their first meal on the substance of the
leaf, and then wandered about for a longer or shorter space of time,
evidently seeking a boll or flower bud. It was always interesting to
watch this seemingly aimless search of the young worm, crawling first
down the leaf stem and then back, then dropping a few inches by a silken
thread and then painfully working its way back again, until, at last, it
found the object of its search, or fell to the ground where it was
destroyed by ants. As the boll worms increase in size a most wonderful
diversity of color and marking becomes apparent. In color different
worms will vary from a brilliant green to a deep pink or dark brown,
exhibiting almost every conceivable intermediate stage from an
immaculate, unstriped specimen to one with regular spots and many
stripes. The green worms were more common than those of any other
color--a common variety was a very light green. When these worms put in
an appearance it raised a great excitement among the planters. We did
not use any poison to destroy them, as I learn is the method now
employed.

* * * * *

THE COTTON HARVEST.

The cotton harvest, or picking season, began about the latter part of
August or first of September, and lasted till Christmas or after, but in
the latter part of July picking commenced for "the first bale" to go
into the market at Memphis. This picking was done by children from nine
to twelve years of age and by women who were known as "sucklers," that
is, women with infants. The pickers would pass through the rows getting
very little, as the cotton was not yet in full bloom. From the lower