On reading the chapter by Mr. T. Bennett in the March number of the Monthly, I am led to offer your readers a scrap of my own experience. All Southern cultivators are aware that cotton seed is a very active and efficient manure. But I have never yet fallen in with any published experiences concerning its value in the extermination of the insect pests of the soil. I manured a plot very heavily with it. On every side of the manured spot the cut worm destroyed every plant, while on the manured ground not one worm of any kind was to be found. I attribute the result to the oil of the cotton seed used. We all know that any oil is obnoxious if not fatal to some forms of insect and reptile life.

I have not investigated the extent to which this is true, but I suspect that here is a field for exploration extensive in its range, interesting in its nature, and profitable in final results. I therefore present the fact of my experience in a single case, and throw out a hint which I hope will be taken by enterprising experimenters.

Victoria, Texas, March 25th, 1885.