168 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 12 



limited to the fields planted in seed from the mill. This seed was used 

 for this purpose in violation of the agreement on the part of the mill 

 that it should be crushed immediately. 



The infestation at Anahuac was soon found to be very extensive. It 

 extended 25 miles south of that place to Smiths Point, but this was not 

 the end, since the work of the inspectors revealed the presence of the 

 pest on the opposite side of the Bay in Galveston County. As this 

 work was continued during the winter of 1917-18 specimens of the pest 

 were found in 161 fields, extending from the Neches River practically 

 to the Brazos River, a distance of 125 miles, and inland a distance of 

 approximately 75 miles. The territory thus found to be infested 

 covers 5,400 square miles, and includes all or portions of seven coun- 

 ties. It is considerably larger than the entire State of Connecticut 

 and about three-fourths as large as the State of New Jersey. 



While the work of delimiting the infestation in southeastern Texas 

 was under way, the work of cleaning the fields was begun. The pro- 

 cedure followed was to cut down the cotton plants standing in the 

 fields, place them in piles, then collecting by hand all of the bolls and 

 particles of bolls on the ground, placing them on the piles of the stalks 

 and burning the whole by the use of kerosene. 



The country in southeastern Texas is sparsely settled, and the farms 

 separated by great distances. The local labor available was entirely 

 insufficient for cleaning the fields thoroughly and with dispatch. Con- 

 sequently gangs of laborers were organized who were housed and pro- 

 visioned and distributed by motor trucks at the expense of the depart- 

 ment. At one time the department had over 1,000 laborers engaged 

 in the work, as well as twenty motor vehicles. The cleaning of the 

 fields cost the department $87,439.88 on 8,794 acres, an average of 

 $9.94 per acre. The cost in some cases was as high as $30 per acre, 

 where the fields were especially far removed from the camps, and 

 where they were filled with stumps or grass, or otherwise difficult to 

 clean properly. 



The field work was greatly facilitated through the taking over of a 

 number of trained men who were in the employ of the State of Texas 

 and the Bureau of Plant Industry in the work of eradicating citrus 

 canker. 



The safeguarding of the cotton and the cotton products originating 

 in the infested territory in 1917 (and in 1916, as that year's crop had 

 to be considered xuearly as dangerous as that of 1917) was accomphshed 

 by the exportation of the lint through the cooperation of the dealers 

 and the crushing of the seed under special supervision in approved 

 establishments in the City of Houston. 



