606 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the crop of 1921. The smaller sum for Texas is due to the fact that 

 that State had already settled most of the claims of its farmers 

 prior to the passage of the joint resolution of Congress. This partici- 

 pation by the Federal Government has been of tremendous service 

 in stimulating cooperation on the part of both States and planters. 



PROGRESS IN DISINFECTION OF COTTON SEED. 



In Egypt one of the current methods of reducing the numbers of 

 pmk bollworms is to heat the seed in the process of ginning. It 

 was found in preliminary experiments conducted in this c.-untry 

 that the problem was quite different here on account of the insula- 

 tion due to lint adhering to the seed, which is practically absent in 

 the case of Egyptian seed. Experiments have been undertaken in 

 Texas and Mexico in cooperation with the Texas Experiment Station 

 and Department of Agriculture to determine the temperature to 

 which seed could be heated without reducing its vitality, and suit- 

 able apparatus has been devised for such treatment. As a result of 

 this work it has been determined that heating the seed to a tempera- 

 ture of 145° F. would destroy all infestation but would not lower, the 

 vitality of the seed. Such disinfection is now required under Texas 

 law in all districts regulated on account of the pink bollworm, and 

 disinfecting machines have been provided in practically all gins in 

 such districts. The crop of 1922 is being handled through these 

 machines, which are interposed between the seed house and the gins, 

 so that the disinfecting becomes an automatic part of the process of 

 ginning. 



RESEARCH WORK IN MEXICO. 



The scientific and research phases of the subject have been con- 

 (Jucted as hitherto in the Laguna district, Mexico, and very important 

 mformation has there been obtained relative to the habits and con- 

 trol of the pest. This work is being conducted on a very small appro- 

 priation (S5.000), but it is very desirable to considerably extend 

 this work, and a fund of SI 0,000 is requested for the year 1924. 

 One important and very practical phase of this work is the determi- 

 nation that the pink bollworm can not as a rule survive in moist soil, 

 and therefore the clean-up operations practiced by this department in 

 Texas and other States — i. e., the destruction of all standing and 

 scattered cotton and bolls — have undoubtedly had much of their 

 success from the fact that any remaining larva- and bolls have been 

 those buried in moist soil. It has been shown that with infested 

 jbolls so buried from 95 to 99 per cent of the larva- perish. 



INVESTIGATIONS OF THE PINK BOLLWORM IN THE WEST INDIES. 



The determination of the occurrence of the pink bollworm in the 

 island of St. Croix, one of the Virgin Islands belonging to the United 

 States, and also in the islands of St. Kitts and Montserrat in the West 

 Indies, made it desirable, in vieM' of the close commercial relations, 

 mterisland and with the United States, to have accurate information 

 as to the extent of the foothold of this pest throughout the West 

 Indies. For this purpose August Busck, entomological assistant of 

 the board, spent several months in this investigation, which included 

 the British and Dutch Guianas, Trinidad, and the islands northward, 



