26 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The method is still expensive, however, and we have not yet been 

 able to reduce the cost to the point where it can be profitably used 

 on land which grows less than one-half bale of cotton per acre. 

 During the summer experiments made in cooperation with the Air 

 Service of the War Department give hope that the use of airplanes 

 for the distribution of poisons may not only reduce the cost but 

 extend the use of such poisons generally in the communities. 



The fight against the pink bollworm, which is regarded as an even 

 more serious pest than the boll weevil, has giv^n us great encourage- 

 ment. This pest had gained limited foothold in Texas, Louisiana, 

 and New Mexico. As a result of a conference of representatives 

 from the cotton States, held in the early summer of 1921, changes in 

 State laws were made which permitted more complete cooperation 

 between the department and the States. With this enlarged author- 

 ity our operations in Texas have been highly successful. The tw^o 

 worst infested areas in that State have been cleaned up. New out- 

 breaks which appeared in two Texas counties in 1921 were attacked 

 vigorously and up to 1922 recurrences of the pink bollworm have 

 been determined in but three fields, these being on the Rio Grande 

 in the Great Bend district, where trouble is always to be expected 

 because of its proximity to Mexico. As an illustration of the need 

 of constant watchfulness, an inspector of the department found in 

 the personal baggage of a passenger landing in Baltimore from 

 Brazil last summer some fifty-odd packages of Brazilian cotton seed, 

 all infested with living pink bollworms. The passenger who 

 brought these had intended to take the seed to the cotton section of 

 Mississippi for planting. Had this been done, in all probability the 

 fight against the pink bollworm would have been lost. The fact that 

 there was an inspector at this port at that particular time and that 

 he was zealous in his duties undoubtedly has saved the cotton States 

 many millions of dollars. 



The Japanese beetle, which came to us with a shipment of Japanese 

 iris, has become a serious pest, apparently one of the most dangerous 

 insect introductions made in many years. In the area of original in- 

 festation, where the insect has J3ecome most abundant, the damage 

 to foliage and fruit is very alarming. This original area was quar- 

 antined, and this has checked the rapidity of the spread of the insect, 

 but it is extending its operations at the rate of about 5 miles a year, 



