FEDERAL HORTICULTURAL. BOARD. 615 



might be determined to be necessary to stamp out the pest, was urged 

 by the State authorities in response to the insistent requests of the 

 planters, particuLarly in the Trmity Bay district, that the growth of 

 cotton should be permitted as a try-out for 1919. In support of this 

 request, it was m-ged by the planters and later by the State authori- 

 ties that the cleanup of the winter of 1917-1 <S of this district had 

 resulted in the nonroappearance of the pink buliworm in the season 

 of 1918, either on volunteer cotton or in any of the fields which 

 had been planted and harvested in defiance of the State regulations 

 and that, therefore, the pest was presumably exterminated or sub- 

 stantially so. In response to these representations and in view 

 of the strong feeling of the planters in the district, maldng it unlikely 

 that a noncotton zone could be enforced, the board ultimately 

 agreed to this change of policy but with the understanding that if 

 such growth of cotton should result in the reappearance of the pink 

 bollworm in the invaded district, the State would promptly reestab- 

 lish noncotton zones for all infested areas and maintain them for 

 such period as might be determined to be necessary to complete the 

 eradication of the pest. In this agreement the State authorities 

 and planters of the district joined. To make this action possible, 

 the State pink bollworm act of October 3, 1917, was amended 

 October 10, 1919, so as to permit the growth of cotton under regula- 

 tion in the noncotton area established under the original act. 



With the reappearance, however, of this pest late ui 1919 in the 

 Trinity Bay district, the planters of this district, eager to take 

 advantage of the prospective hi^h market value of cotton for the 

 following year, entered strong objection to the proposal of the State 

 to again authorize and enforce a noncotton zone for the district. 

 There followed considerable discussion of the polic}^ to be adopted, 

 namely, whether to permit cotton to be grown under regulation 

 with authority to destroy the plants in the infested fields from time 

 to time if infestation should be determined, or to enforce an 

 immediate and definite noncotton zone for the entire district in con- 

 summation of the plans and agreements which had been entered into 

 by the State and planters as a condition for the try-out of the cotton 

 crop for 1919. The former policy was ultimately approved by the 

 State authorities in the belief that it was the only course possible 

 under the powers given b}^ the existing State pink bollworm law. 



The department pointed out that the adoption of this policy 

 would mean the practical abandonment of the fight to exterminate 

 the pink bollworm in the United States. This point of view was also 

 strongly emphasized at a conference of official entomologists and 

 inspectors of other cotton States held at Vicksburg in March, and also 

 at a general cotton conference, held at New Orleans in April to dis- 

 cuss the pink bollworm situation and particularly to determine 

 what action the State of Louisiana should take to meet the emer- 

 gency occasioned by the invasion by this pest of three parishes in 

 that State. 



These new developments pointed to the necessity of a Federal 

 quarantine for the protection of other cotton-growing States. A 

 hearing to form the basis of such quarantine was conducted in 

 Washington April 6 and 7 and was largely attended by the officials 

 interested and others of practically all the cotton-producintj; States of 

 the Nation. As a result of the general discussion of the subject at this 



