614 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



^rojitly restricting control work, conil)inc(l to give a now and very 

 serious phase to the pink bollworni situation. For convenience in 

 this rc'port, the status of this problem in 'P(>xas nnd LouisianajWillbe 

 separalely eonsiih'red. 



REVIEW OF THK WORK IN TEXAS. 



At the time of the preparation of my last report, October 1, 1919, 

 no now infestations or reinfestalions of old territory had been de- 

 termined in Texas following the intensive inspection which had been 

 conducted throughout that year. This was a most encouraging 

 result and indicated the possibility of a successful outcome of the 

 tremendous effort which was being made to control and exterminate 

 this pest. In the latter part of October of that year, however, a few 

 examples of the pink bollworm were found in one of the old infested 

 areas of 1917 in the Trinity Bay district in southeastern Texas, and 

 the later intensive surveys throughout the entire district and sur- 

 rounding areas in the winter of 1919-20 resulted in the finding of 

 some 43 infested fields scattered practically throughout this district. 

 The infestation, howeyer, was limited in practically every instance 

 to a few plants or to small groups of plants and indicated just such 

 a scattering return of the insect as Avould have been anticipated. 



In the Pecos Valley the intensive field inspections of 1919-20 

 resulted in the finding of but one infested ])oll containing a single 

 larva of the pink bollworm. 



In the case of the Great Bend area the State had prohibited the 

 growth of cotton in 1919, and this prohibition was made effective 

 except as to one field, the growing cotton in which became infested 

 and was later destroyed under vState authority. 



Following these discoveries of reinfestation in Texas, the entire 

 areas involved were immediately subjected to intensive clean-up oper- 

 ations similar to those carried out in the winter of 1917-18 and as to 

 the Pecos area in 1918-19, involving the uprooting and burning of all 

 field cotton, the collection and destruction of all scattering bolls, the 

 foreign export of the cotton lint, and the crushing of all seed. These 

 operations were carried out with large expenditure of Federal funds 

 but with the understanding that the State would immediately again 

 declare and enforce under the existing State law a noncotton zone 

 as to the reinfested areas with the purpose of completing the work of 

 extermination of this pest. 



The reappearance of the pink bollworm, particularly in the Trinity 

 Bay district, emphasized very strongly the unwisdom of the abandon- 

 ment of the original program for a tw^o or three years' noncotton 

 zone for the invaded districts of 1917, and pointed clearly to the 

 necessity of immediately resuming this interrupted program if the 

 extermination of the pink bollworm was to be effected. The rein- 

 festations appearing after a one year noncotton zone can be probably 

 explained by the holding over for one year of larvse which have been 

 buried deeply in the soil or otherwise protected. The possibility oC 

 such larval longevity has been fully established by the experts of the 

 board in research work conducted in Hawaii and Mexico. 



The departure from the radical program of extermination which 

 had been agreed to between the State and Federal authorities in- 

 volving noncotton zones for two or three years, or for such period^ as 



