380 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



All cotton is imported under permit and the ports of entry are 

 confined to the ports where special plants for the disinfection of 

 cotton have been constructed. These ports are: Boston, Mass.; 

 New York, N. Y.; Newark, N. J.; and San Francisco, Cal. The 

 regulations provide further that no imported cotton may be dis- 

 tributed to any person, firm, or corporation not holding an unrevoked 

 license to purchase or use such cotton. By means of a system of 

 reports the board is able to locate until its consumption any bale of 

 cotton imported since June 30, 1915. These regulations do not apply 

 to cotton grown in and shipped from the States of Nuevo Leon, 

 Coahuila, Durango, Chihuahua, Tamaulipas, and Lower California, 

 Mexico. 



In February it was brought to the attention of the board that a 

 considerable amount of cotton waste was being imported. Certain 

 grades of this waste, containing the seeds from as many as 20 bales of 

 ginned cotton, are obviously much more dangerous than ordinary 

 ginned cotton. The definition of the term "cotton," as used in the 

 rules and regulations governing the importation of cotton into the 

 United States, was promptly enlarged to include, in addition to 

 ginned cotton, all grades of cotton waste. No disinfection, however, 

 is required of grades of cotton waste resulting from processes in the 

 manufacture of cotton which render it mechanically impossible for 

 them to contain seeds, that is, those grades resulting from and subse- 

 quent to the carding machines, and there are no restrictions as to the 

 ports through which such grades of waste may be entered. 



Owing to the abnormal conditions obtaining in this country, due 

 to the disturbed conditions in Europe, the completion of a suitable 

 plant for the disinfection of foreign cottons was delayed until early 

 in March. The regulations were then amended by providing that 

 on and after March 10, 1916, all imported cotton must be disinfected 

 at the port of entry as a condition of entry. In the meantime all 

 users of imported cotton were required to screen and safeguard the 

 warehouses in which the cotton was stored and the rooms in which 

 the cotton was handled in the process of opening and cleaning and to 

 destroy by burning all picker waste from such cotton. As now dis- 

 infected, the cotton in its original bales is placed in steel retorts 

 accommodating from 50 to 200 bales - of Egyptian cotton, and a 

 vacuum of 25 inches is produced. Hydrocyanic-acid gas is then 

 introduced into the retort and after a period of 15 minutes air is 

 introduced into the retort until the vacuum drops to 5 inches. The 

 cotton is then held in this mixture of air and gas for a period of 1 

 hour and 25 minutes. The mixture of air and gas is then exhausted 

 and the cotton removed. A large series of experiments has demon- 

 strated that the pink boll worm can not survive this treatment. The 

 disinfection at all plants is carried out under the personal supervision 

 of inspectors of this board. 



The desirability of preventing the introduction of the pink boll 

 worm into the United States is evidenced by the fact that the last 

 cotton crop in the infested regions of Egypt was reduced about 25 

 per cent by this insect. The present law in that country is much 

 more drastic than the rules and regulations governing the importa- 

 tion of cotton into the United States, notwithstanding the fact that 

 Egypt is badly infested by the pink boll worm. The plan followed 



