FEDERAL HOKTICULTUKAL BOAED. 437 



traffic, and they have the following car capacity at the different ports 

 of entry: Laredo, 15 cars; Eagle Pass, 8 cars; Brownsville, 6 cars; 

 and El Paso, 1 car. At Del Eio no railroad line crosses the border, 

 and a house is being constructed to take care of traffic in wagons and 

 motor trucks. Each of these houses is provided with a system of 

 generators in which hydrocyanic-acid gas is produced and distributed 

 to the house. 



The cost of this disinfection will be assumed by the Department of 

 Agriculture and a charge will be made to cover the actual labor, other 

 than supervision, and the chemicals used. The moneys so received, 

 under the law, must be turned into the Treasury of the United States. 

 This will result in a very considerable depletion of the funds available 

 for this border quarantine service, and it will, therefore, probably be 

 necessary to ask Congress to reimburse the fund thus expended. 

 These houses will probably be completed and in use by the end of 

 October, 1918, and will add very much to the efficiency of the border 

 quarantine service. 



THE SITUATION IN MEXICO. 



The pink boUworm situation in Mexico, as determined by surveys 

 conducted during the last two years, seems to confirm the limitation 

 of the pink bollworm infestation to the Laguna district and to two 

 other isolated areas of small extent opposite Eagle Pass, Tex. This 

 situation indicates a much more favorable outlook for possible future 

 extermination of the insect in Mexico than had been anticipated. 

 The Mexican Government issued a decree on-November 15, 1917, re- 

 stricting transportation from the Laguna district of cotton or cotton 

 seed to other parts of Mexico, and preliminary arrangements have 

 been made in cooperation with the Mexican Government and the 

 planters concerned, which may ultimately lead to the prohibition of 

 the growth of cotton in the Lagima and in the other infested districts 

 for a series of years and the substitution therefor of other crops. 



The experiment station to study the pink bollworm and to conduct 

 field experiments with the growth of crops in substitution for cotton 

 established last year in the Laguna district by this department has 

 , enabled us to secure much needed information relating to the habits 

 and food plants of the insect. This information may be of great 

 future service in determining the most efficient means of preventing 

 spread and maintaining field control. As to substitute crops, the 

 wheat and corn crops of the Laguna this year have been extraordi- 

 narily successful, and the peanut and castor-bean crops have given 

 good promise. 



PROVISIONS FOR PINK BOLLWORM WORK FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 1919. 



To provide for the continuation of the pink bollworm work, the 

 Secretary of Agriculture submitted to Congress an estimate for a 

 special appropriation of $800,000, to be included in the Agricultural 

 appropriation bill for the fiscal year 1919.^ The House and Senate 

 ultimately approved an appropriation for this purpose of $500,000, 

 The items of work provided for under this appropriation are as 

 follows : 



(1) To prevent the movement of cotton and cotton seed from IMexico into the 

 United States, including the regulation of the entry into the United States of 



^Approved October 1, 1918. 



