798 Journal op the Department of Agriculture. 



so scatteringly in the veld that effective operations against them are 

 impracticable. Evidently the hatching in Kimberley and Jacobsdal 

 was irregular and began very early, as by 1st November ncAvly Hedged 

 locusts were present along with small and large voetgangers. Some 

 early liatching must also have occurred somewhere near Conway, in 

 the Middelburg District north of Cradock, numerous flyers being 

 observed there on 4th November. The outbreak in tlie Willowmore 

 District is in Baviaans Kloof, a section of the country considerably 

 south of any place where locusts have been known to tlie Division of 

 Entomology for many years. It is thought quite prol)able that voet- 

 gangers in small swarms, small clusters, and as solitary individuals 

 are widespread in the Karroo, and that farmers are ignorant of their 

 presence or else disregarding them. Small clusters and solitary voet- 

 gangers cannot be satisfactorily combated in the veld, but swarms 

 can and should be, and farmers are earnestly urged to search dili- 

 gently for such aggregations of the insect and to destroy every one 

 located. Some farmers delude themselves into accepting that it is 

 useless for them to woiry about the first little swarms when they must 

 leave myriads of scattered locusts. liut the Division of Ento- 

 mology believes that tlie destruction of those swarms is particularly 

 important, and reasons that the more of them the farmers destroy the 

 greater will be the proportion of solitary locusts that will fall victims 

 to locust birds and o'ther natural enemies. Great locust trouble in 

 the past has followed big droughts. The 1919 drought in the Karroo 

 was one of the worst on record. The extent, to which locust swarms 

 will now develop de])ends on the extent to which the initial little 

 swarms are destroved bv man. 



The Danger lurking in Imported Cotton Seed. 



We drew attention in last month's Jounnal to the great risk 

 which faces our infant cotton industry in the introduction of cotton 

 seed and how the danger must be guarded against. Another instance 

 of the manner in which seed, bearing one of the most dreaded cotton 

 scourges, may be introduced, has been brought to our notice by the 

 Chief of the Division of Entomology. 



A passenger for Portuguese East Africa who landed at Durban 

 recently had with him a small bag of Egyptian cotton seed procured 

 from the British Cotton Growing Association. The (Justoms Depart- 

 ment took possession of the parcel and passed it to the local 

 Entomologist, who, under instructions from Pretoria, forwarded it 

 intact, as arranged, to the Entomologist of Portuguese East Africa 

 for inspection and disinfection before delivery to the owner. The 

 seed was obtained from an association devoted to the encouragement 

 of cotton growing in British Dominions,, while all cotton seed from 

 Egypt is supposed to be machine-treated by heat as a precaution, but 

 it was feared that notwithstanding the seed might possibly be carrv- 

 ing the terribly destructive pink boll worm. The fear proved to be 

 well founded. On picking over the five pounds of seed contained in 

 the little bag 1430 seeds, or about 6 per cent, of the total, had been 

 eaten out by the pest, while five moths, six pupae, and fifty larvae 

 were found. Thirty of the larvae t^nd pupae were alive. The hold- 

 ing of cotton seed over for a year, it may be of interest to add, is not 



