FEDERAL HORTICULTURAL BOARD. 421 



immediately instituted with the aid of funds available from the 

 regular appropriation for the Federal Horticultural Board. The 

 scope of this work is indicated in the wording of the special appro- 

 priation referred to, as follows : 



To enable the Secretary of Agriculture to meet the emergency caused by the 

 existence of the pink bolhvorm of cotton in Mexico and the movement of some 

 five hundred carloads oC cottonseed from the infested districts in Mexico to 

 milling points in Texas and elsewhere, and to prevent the establishment of 

 such insect in Texas or in any other State by providing for adequate inspection 

 and the employment of all means necessary umler rules and regulations to be 

 prescribed by him, to prohibit the movement of cotton and cottonseed from 

 Mexico into the United States, including the examination of baggage and 

 railroad cars or other means of conveyance and the cleaning and disinfection 

 thereof; to inspect mills in Texas or elsewhere in the United States to which 

 Mexican cotton seed has been taken for milling; to supervise the destruction, 

 by manufacture or otherwise, of sucli seed and the thorough clean-up of the 

 mills and premises ; to conduct local surveys and inspections of cotton fields 

 in the vicinity of sucli mills and ports of entry in order to detect any instances 

 of local infestation; and to determine and conduct such control measures in 

 cooperation with the State of Texas or other States concerned as may be 

 necessary to stamp out such infestation, including rent outside of the District 

 of Columbia, employment of labor in the city of Washington and elsewdiere, and 

 all other necessary expenses, $50,000, available immediately and until expended. 



The inspection force to take up the work as indicated in the 

 Avording of the appropriation, namely, (1) the clean-up of the mills 

 which had received cotton seed and the inspection and safeguarding 

 of adjacent cotton fields, and (2) the border control, including con- 

 trol of all car and freight traffic between Mexico and the United 

 States, was put under the field charge of Mr. T. C. Barber, with 

 headquarters at San Antonio. A number of entomologists were 

 assigned to the work of mill and field inspection during the sum- 

 mer, and inspectors were assigned to take charge of the border- 

 control work, ultimately distributed as follows: one at Brownsville, 

 two at Laredo, two at Eagle Pass, and two at El Paso. The small 

 and occasional importations through subsidiary ports on the Mexican 

 border are being handled by the inspectors at the main ports. 



The clean-up of the mills was made as promptly and as thoroughly 

 as the conditions would permit, but in some instances the Mexican 

 seed was overlaid with vast quantities of domestic seed, and this 

 delayed in some instances until fairly late in the spring the comple- 

 tion of the milling of the entire mass and the final clean-up of the 

 premises. 



During the growing season of 1917 inspectors made frequent ex- 

 aminations of all cotton fields in the vicinity of the mills which 

 had received Mexican cotton seed to determine at the earliest moment 

 whether any of the insects had escaped from the imported seed and 

 infested the adjacent fields, provision being made for the prompt 

 destruction of cotton in any field showing any sign of infestation. 

 No trace of infestation in Texas by the pink bollworm was found 

 during the summer, and the outlook was promising that the insect 

 had failed to establish itself.^ 



1 Subsequmt to the period covered by this report three outbreaks of the pink bollworm 

 have been determined in Texas. Two of these have been in connection with mills whi^-h 

 had received seed from INIexico during 1916, namely at Hearne, reported September 12, and 

 at Beaumont, reported October 15. The infestation at these two points was sporadic and 

 very slight, and clean-up operations of the most tlioroughjioing character have presumably 

 stamped out these infestations. The third point is at Anahuac, Tex., reported October 31, 

 and involves many cotton fields, representing, however, a total of only some 50 acres. 

 Xo explanation of this infestation is now available. Clean-up operations are being laBti- 

 tuted. [C. L. M., Nov, 8, iyi7.] 



