48 



vents the late fall breeding. These late-developed 

 weevils are the ones most likely to survive the winter 

 as they have not exhausted their vitality by long flights 

 or by extensive deposition of eggs as have the older 

 weevils. Second, few full-grown weevils can live for 

 more than three weeks without food before killing 

 frosts occur. After frosts the weevils may live for 

 more than six months without tasting food. Early 

 destruction of stalks therefore forces the weevils to 

 move for food to other fields where stalks are still 

 standing or leaves them to starve before it becomes 

 cold enough for them to live wdthout food. Third, 

 cleaning up the cotton fields early in the fall removes 

 the very best winter shelter condition that the weevils 

 could possibly find and therefore reduces directly the 

 percentage of weevils surviving the winter. 



The combination of these factors makes the early 

 fall destruction of green cotton the most effective 

 method vet found for fighting the weevil successfullv. 

 It is also the most economical method for controlling 

 Ihe weevils as it need not involve any real extra ex- 

 pense- 



Records From Texas and Louisiana. — More thar 

 175,000 definite observations made in Texas and Louisi- 

 ana during several seasons and in a number of widely 

 separated localities gave the results shown below for 

 each 1000 weevils present when their food supply was 

 removed. 



All cotton stalks Number of weevils 



destroyed by per thousand 



surviving winter 



September 30 2 



October 15 21 



October 31 G8 



November 10 121 



What was found to be true in so large a number of 

 observations, in many localities and in an average of 

 several seasons West of the Mississippi River is doubt- 

 less approximately true also here in Alabama and we 

 may therefore expect a similar survival under average 

 winter conditions here. 



THREE METHODS OF DESTROYING STALKS. 

 There are onlv three methods of stalk destruction to 



