Jf^r. 2, 190S.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. 225 



Progress Report from Mr. W. W. Froggatt. 



[Mr. Frokgatt is travelling on behalf of the Governments of Queensland, New 

 South Wales, Victoria, and 8outh Australia, in quest of means of combating 

 the Fruit fly and Codling moth pests, and other fruit and plant diseases.] 



R.M.S. " Morro Castle," Gulf of Mexico, 



Sir, 29th November, 1907. 



I have the honor herewith to forward to you a ^^rogress report of my 

 movements since I left Washington, D.C, on October lOth, 



Accompanied by Dr. L, C, Howard (Chief of the Entomological Division, 

 United States Department of Agriculture), left Washington for New Orleans, 

 at 9 a.m., passed through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, 

 and reached New Orleans at 10'30 p.m., on the night of the 16th. After 

 passing through Virginia we came into tobacco and cotton country, tlie 

 greater part of which is sublet, right into Texas, to the negroes who work it 

 on the shares system. The lanflowner finds the land, mule, seed, and pays 

 the negroes' store bill till the crop is taken off, so always has his tenants in 

 debt. A good crop is a bale to the acre, 500 lb., worth at present about 

 5.5 dollars, or slightly over 10 cents a lb., but it has beeii down to 5 cents, 

 which is the estimated cost of production. Roughly, 40 dollars an acre is a 

 good harvest, which the landowner and tenant divide; so that after the cost 

 of production is taken into account, the value per acre is not great. However,, 

 where the cotton-boll weevil [Anthimonis yraudis) has spread, the yield over 

 many thousand acres in the greater jiart of Texas and Western Louisiana, 

 has been reduced to half a bale an acre, and it has only been the high price 

 of cotton that has kept thousands of acres from going out of culti\ation. 

 The cotton seed is of some value for oil-making, cattle food, and manure ; it 

 is hoj^ed that the stalks may be used for the manufacture of jjaper, and 

 experiments are being carried out to test this product. This halves system has 

 led to very poor cultivation, and the tenant does not take any trouble to clear up 

 the dead cotton plants after the crop is gathered, and so it is thus very difficult 

 to deal with the boll weevil, which is spreading northwards at the rate of thirty 

 mdes a year, has crossed the Mississippi River, and is now at Baton Rouge. 



At New Orleans, Professor Hunter (who is in charge of the Agricultural 

 Experiment Station at Dallas, Texas) met us, and we went on next day to 

 the Agricultural Station at Baton Rouge, and the Pest Crop Commission of 

 Louisiana officers, under the charge of Mr. Newell, where experiments dealing 

 with the cattle tick, boll weevil, and other pests are being carried out. These 

 laboratories are fitted out in a very elaborate style and a regular staff engaged 

 under the State Government. The chief methods advocated in tick 

 extermination are starvhig them out of each paddock by removing all stock, 

 and thus gradually decreasing the infested area, and smearing all stock, but 

 they discourage dipping. 



An introduced unt (/ ridoiuyscoiu isc hum His) allied to several of our species, 

 which is said to have been introduced from Buenos Ayres, South America, is a 

 very serious house pest all over this State, and is also spreading very rapidly. 

 W^e left o 1 the same day for Shrieveport, and arrived there at 10 30 p.m. 

 the same n'ght, and next morning visited Mr. Hood's office, where experi- 

 ments are being carried on with parasites of tlie cotton-boll weevil, lefi the 

 same morning for J)allas, and arrived there at 8 30 p.m. 



