THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



467 



with the wide area suitable to its requirements free at present from the 

 insect pests and diseases peculiar to its culture, is the cotton crop of 

 the state. With a full appreciation of what it signifies financially to 

 keep the cotton fields of California free from the ravages of the cotton 

 boll weevil and the pink boll worm every effort has been and is being 

 made by the State Commissioner of Horticulture to prevent their intro- 

 duction by rigid regulations providing for the control of cotton seed 

 brought into California, and the Federal Horticultural Board maintains 

 stringent quarantine regulations covering the bringing of foreign grown 



Fig. 110. — Another view of the con- 

 tainer, sliowins the cotton seed. 

 (Photo by A. Chatterley.) 



cotton seed into any part of the United States. Despite all these pre- 

 cautions a glance at the lower edge of Figure 110 shows clearly that 

 cotton seed can be sent into any part of California and readily escape 

 the vigilance of the inspectors and the purpose of the law. 



In this particular matter of cotton seed the writer has been much 

 solaced by the assurance of an international authority on the subject 

 of cotton pests to the effect that the danger of introducing the boll 

 weevil in this manner is remote, yet the route is open and freely avail- 

 able, and the prime purpose of this article is to record photographically 

 that the route is being used, and endeavor to impress upon our crop 

 producers how easy it must be for pests to gain an entrance in spite of all 

 vigilance and local laws as long as the mails are available to the trans- 

 mission of their host plants. The administration of California has done 

 more than perhaps any other state in the Union to protect the crops of 

 its producers by the passing of horticultural laws, and the provision 

 made in men and means for carrying out the same, and it now remains 

 for the crop producers to complete this protection by uniting in an 

 effort to bring about the control of plant material brought in California 

 through the medium of the United States mails. 



