•620 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



ft fund for the control and eradication of the pink bollworm for the 

 fiscal year 1021 of S32o,00(). This is exclusive of the border control 

 appropriation of S14S,56(), a fund of SK), ()()() for surveys in Mexico 

 near tlie border of the United States, and an item of S5, ()()() for investi- 

 gation of the pink bollworm as a basis for control measures. The 

 total ajipropriation for |)ink-b()llworm work is therefore S488,560. 

 In addition, there is available for i)ink-l)ollworm work the appro- 



Eriation bv the Texas Legislature of $100. ()()() and bv the Louisiana 

 legislature of $250,000. 



RESEARCH WORK IN RCLATION TO I'INK BOLLWOR.M. 



Laouxa statiox closed. — The research station which has been 

 maintained in the Laguna, Mexico, for the past two years was closed 

 this year, research work wdiich could be conveniently done at this 

 time having been substantially completed. A report will soon be 

 issued giving the results of the tw^o years' study of the pink bollworm 

 in Mexico. Tlie damage to cotton in this district in Mexico in 1919 

 averaged about 20 per cent of the crop. Of special interest is the 

 fact that fumigation tests have shown that infested seed can be sat- 

 isfactorily disinfected with carbon bisulphide, but that hydrocyanic- 

 acid gas at the ordinary atmospheric pressure has not sufficient pene- 

 trating powers to be effective to a greater depth than a few inches. 

 The attempt to control the insect in the field with arsenical poisons 

 has yielded only negative results. 



The larvfB of the pink bollworm have been found to be very resist- 

 ant to water and have survived 48 hours' immersion, whereas larvae 

 in dry bolls have survived a period of seven or eight days. This 

 probably ^ives an explanation of one of the means of spread of larvae, 

 especially in a district like that of the Great Bend of tbe Rio Grande 

 by water carriage in bolls or parts of the cotton plant which may 

 be caught up by flood waters. 



Study of other host plants than cotton. — ^A very careful 

 survey has been conducted of the malvaceous plants along the Rio 

 Grande and elsewhere in Texas to determine the possibility of their 

 serving as hosts for the pink bollworm. This included not only wild 



Elants, but also such cultivated plants as species of hibiscus and hoUy- 

 ock and garden plantings of okra. In no case has the pink boll- 

 worm been found to infest any of these plants. In Texas, therefore, 

 it so far has confuied itself strictly to cotton, and this is of very great 

 importance in connection with the efforts to exterminate the insect 

 by establishment of noncotton areas. That the insect will feed at 

 least on okra has, however, been shown by the experience in Egypt, 

 and this has also proved to be the case in Mexico, and therefore this 

 and possibly other related plants must be taken into consideration 

 in control work. 



BORDER QUARANTINE SERVICE. 



The Texas border inspection quarantine service, which has here- 

 tofore been under the general direction of Mr. R. Kent Beattie, has 

 recently been transferred to the direction of Mr. E. R. Sasscer, and 

 to this department has been added the general administration of all 

 the port inspection service being conducted under the Federal plant- 

 quarantine act, namely, the inspection ofhces and forces at New 

 York, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, and New Orleans. 



