WHOLE VOL. APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY HOWARD 13 1 



against the weevil ; and later brought about the use of airplanes for 

 the distribution of this poison dust over large areas. Many people 

 think that it has been very largely through his labors, that cotton can 

 be grown profitably in the presence of the weevil. He is now (1928) 

 in charge of all the work on Cotton Insects for the United States 

 Bureau of Entomology.' 



But the work, largely biological, of Hinds and Pierce and of many 

 other assistants must not be forgotten. Possibly no other insect is 

 better known today than is Anthonomus grandis. 



I first visited the field in 1896, joining Townsend and Schwarz. 

 Again I joined Hunter in the summer of 1901, and for many years 

 thereafter went to the South each year to see the conditions and the 

 work. So vivid were the impressions I gained, so novel were the 

 experiences, so many and so delightful were the new southern friends 

 and so sad was the plight of many of them, that for many years the 

 South, the southern people and the boll weevil were uppermost in my 

 mind. The bravery of the people, the wonderful way they accepted a 

 burden that would in any other region have driven thousands more to 

 despair, was a revelation to me. They actually joked about this small 

 but terrible enemy ; cheap cigars were called " boll weevils " ; sign- 

 boards said " Forget the boll weevil and come to [such and such a 

 show] " ; the boll weevil became a daily and even an hourly word ; the 

 man in the street was heard in a fight to call his opponent a blank 

 blank boll weevil — evidently nothing worse, in his opinion, could be 

 said. A politician in the heat of political argument was quite apt to 



^ While I have omitted mention of State officials, a number of whom did 

 excellent work in the course of the investigation of this pest, the name of 

 Wilmon Newell stands out tor a very espec.al reason. Mr. Newell went south 

 m 1902, and was stationed for a time in Texas. In 1903 and most of 1904 he was 

 State Entomologist of Georgia, and in the latter part 01 the latter year he was 

 made Entomologist of the Louisiana Experiment Station and Secretary and 

 Entomologist of the Louisiana Crop Pest Commission. These posts he held 

 until 1910, when he returned to Texas; and eventually, in 1915, became Plant 

 Commissioner for the State Plant Board of Florida. In 1921 he was made Dean 

 of the College of Agriculture of the University of Florida, Director of the Florida 

 Experiment Station, and Director of the Agricultural Extension Division of the 

 University of Florida. His name stands out among the workers on the cotton 

 boll weevil for the reason that in 1907, in Louisiana, he first tried powdered lead 

 arsenate against the boll weevil. Large field tests followed in 1908 and 1909, 

 and the results showed a decided increase in the yield on the poisoned plots. 

 This was the first use of an arsenate in powder form against the weevil, and 

 undoubtedly led naturally and directly to the development of calcium arsenate 

 by Coad and the subsequent use of that material on such a broad scale throughout 

 the cotton belt. 



