RESULTS OF COTTON EXPERIMENTS IN 1911. 9 



country in southern and western Texas that are now being occupied 

 by fanning communities. This movement is going forward rapidly, 

 and lumdreds of settlements are being opened. Many of the more 

 extensive cattle ranges of former years are being plowed and planted, 

 not merely because the land has become valuable for agricultural 

 purposes, but because the raj)id extension of mesquite and other 

 woody vegetation has restricted the supply of grass and greatly 

 reduced the value of the land for grazing purposes.^ 



There is no apparent reason why this extension of the cotton belt 

 to the westward should not make good the losses caused by the boll 

 weevil in the more humid regions of the East. On the other hand, the 

 greater diversification of farming in the regions where cotton is 

 becoming a more precarious crop tends to compensate for the restric- 

 tion of range facilities in the West. The former cattle country is 

 producing cotton and the cotton country is showdng renewed activity 

 in the production of cattle. The boll-weevil invasion has stimulated 

 activity in the extermination of the cattle tick. 



The higher cost of labor and transportation in the Southwest is 

 largely compensated by protection from weevils and favorable weather 

 in the long picldng season. There is seldom any rain to damage the 

 cotton by beating it down to the ground or to discolor or rot the 

 fiber in the bolls, as often hai)pens during periods of wet weather 

 in the more humid Eastern States. This is particularly important, 

 of course, in connection with the production of the high-grade long- 

 staple cottons that are likely to be grown in irrigated districts-^* 



COTTON IMPROVEMENT ON A COMMUNITY BASIS. 



A general study of tliis subject shows that many factors of improve- 

 ment could be much more effectively utiHzed if cotton-growing 

 communities were organized to grow a single variety of cotton and 

 maintain its uniformity by selection. The present multiplicity and 



' Change of Vegetation on the South Texas Prairies. Circular 14, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Dept., 

 of Agriculture, 1908. 



2 One well-known investigator of the weevil problem has gone so far as to suggest an ultimate transfer 

 of the entire cotton industry of the country into the dry Southwestern States: 



"The time will no doubt come when cotton production will be abandoned in the humid area of the 

 Southern States, antl the area of production of this crop transferred to the warm arid region just mentioned. 

 When the boll weevil has become distributed throughout the present cotton area of the United States, the 

 annual loss from its effects, in spite of all methods and agencies that can be brought to bear against it, will 

 probably exceed $50,000,000. Why should this loss continue to be incurred and carried year after year, 

 when a new cotton region which will produce a far higher grade of flber worth a higher price awaits exploi- 

 tation ? 



" Let the Southern States raise other crops tliat are l)etter suited to their conditions, and move the area 

 of cotton production to the Southwest, where it belongs. The boll weevil will not trouble it there. Such 

 action will not be reahzed for several decades, it is safe to say, and I will no doubt be set down as a foolish 

 theorist for making the suggestion. However this may be, I rely upon my firm conviction that the change 

 willcome eventually and that time will prove the soundness of the suggestion." See Townsend, C. H. T., 

 "The Cotton Square-Weevil of Peru and Its Bearing on the Boll-Wee\-il Problem in North America," 

 Journal of Economic Entomology, vol. 4, 1911, p. 248. 



45228°— Cir. 96—12 2 



