616 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



for over two years. Similarly, in the Trinity Bay area in Texas, 

 where in 1917 all or parts of seven counties were found infested, 

 and also in the other minor areas in central and eastern Texas, the 

 measures taken, namely, the cleaning of the fields and establishment 

 of noncotton and regulated zones, have reduced the infestation to 

 the point where only one infested boll was found in 1921 and that 

 was in the Trinity Bay area, and none whatever in all areas in 1922, 

 and in 1923. 



No continued effort has been made to eradicate the pink boll- 

 worm in extreme western Texas and New Mexico for the reason that 

 the proximity to the Mexican border would insure reinfestation after 

 any noncotton period. Tlie danger of infestation spreading from 

 the western area into the Cotton Belt proper has, however, been 

 greatly reduced by quarantine and the installation of disinfecting 

 machines in all gins. These precautions, with the natural isolation 

 of the areas affected, reduce the danger of spread from these areas of 

 infestation to a degree not greater than that incident to the infesta- 

 tions in Mexico. 



While the work of eradiction is now in a very satisfactory condi- 

 tion, it would be too much to expect that there will be no reoccur- 

 rences of infestation in some of the areas where eradication has been 

 undertaken, and it is possible that new centers of infestation may 

 be found. The control of any future outbreaks is, however, reason- 

 ably assured by what has already been accomplished. Certainly no 

 relaxation should be permitted in the work which is under way. 

 Intensive field scouting must be continued and funds must be avail- 

 able for immediate clean-up and other repressive measures if the 

 results which have been secured are to be retained. It is interesting 

 to note, in the matter of comparison, that in the Laguna area, the 

 principal cotton producing district of Mexico, where the pink boll- 

 worm has now been established upward of 10 years, it is apparently 

 still increasing in intensity of infestation and in the amount of loss 

 occasioned. The infestation during the past season seems to have 

 been much more severe than in the two preceding years and the 

 present indications are that the production will be only about half 

 the normal crop, this result being in part, however, chargeable to 

 the depredations of the cotton-leaf worm. 



Scouting. — With reference to the crop of 1922, a total of 7,760 

 man-days of scouting was performed. Seventy-one per cent of the 

 time was spent in Texas, 16 per cent in Louisiana, and 13 per cent 

 in other States and in Mexico. One thousand five hundred and 

 eighty-nine fields in 219 localities, with a total area of 88,120 acres, 

 were examined. These fields were carefully selected with reference 

 to previous infestations or to known risk from seed or other reasons. 

 The most useful scouting period includes the months of September to 

 January or February, and this work, therefore, in connection with 

 the crop of 1923, is, at this writing, in full progress. 



As a part of the protection maintained as to reinfestation from 

 Mexico, a border inspection was made in Mexico that included prac- 

 tically every field along the Rio Grande from a point opposite Del 

 Eio to the mouth of the river, and no infestation was determined. 

 This range of inspection included the San Carlos district opposite 

 Del Rio and the fields in the Allende district about 40 miles south- 

 west of Eagle Pass, Tex., where the pink bollworm was found 



