26 ANNUAL REPORTS OP DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Realizing that it was economically unsound for an appreciable 

 portion of the crop practically to become dead stock and to be ex- 

 cluded from use, this Department took steps to secure its proper 

 utilization, particularly through a modification of Government con- 

 tracts. It was believed to be feasible to use lower grade cotton with- 

 out reducing the serviceability of the manufactured fabric. Steps 

 were taken also, through cooperation with the designated spot mar- 

 kets, to assure the accuracy of quotations. It may be desirable to 

 amend the rules for obtaining differences in order to secure more 

 nearly accurate quotations for the grades of which some markets may 

 from time to time become bare. The possibility of formulating a 

 workable plan is being considered. 



THE PINK BOLLiWORM OP COTTON. 



Attention was called last year to the establishment in the Laguna, 

 the principal cotton-growing district of Mexico, of the pink boll- 

 worm of cotton. The quarantine action as to Mexican cotton and 

 cotton seed, as well as the provision for a very complete Mexican 

 border control service, was then noted, and reference also was made 

 to the clean-up operations with the mills in Texas which, prior to 

 the discovery of this insect in Mexico, received Mexican cotton seed 

 for crushing. 



There were three points of infestation in Texas last year, at 

 Hearne, Beaumont, and the much larger Trinity Bay district. They 

 are under effective control. No additional areas have been found. 



The Trinity Bay infestation was the most serious, covering 6,000 

 acres. It undoubtedly was not due to the importation of cotton seed 

 from Mexico prior to the establishment of the quarantine in 1916. 

 The insect has been present there for three or four years, and it must 

 have been introduced either through some importation of foreign 

 cotton seed in violation of the Federal quarantine, or, as seems more 

 probable, through storm-distributed cotton or cotton seed from Mex- 

 ico. Following the great storm of 1915, cotton lint and cotton seed, 

 some of which came from the Laguna, Mexico, were observed quite 

 generally about the shores of the bay. The distribution of the insect, 

 as determined in the survey and clean-up work of the fall and winter 

 of 1917-18, strongly supports this theory of origin. 



The State of Texas, under the authority of the cotton quarantine 

 act passed by the special session of the State legislature on October 



