August, 'OS] JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 335 



pended upon to kill the immature stages even if thej' would kill the 

 adults. 



Trap rows are rendered impracticable by many considerations, but 

 especially by the period of emergence from hiliei'nation extending far 

 beyond the time of any practicable delay in the planting of the main 

 crop. 



Among the multitude of machines devised, most have been designed 

 for collecting and destroying the adults, or both adults and the in- 

 fested fruit. Although some of them have been built at great ex- 

 pense and with the best of mechanical skill, none has yet proven 

 superior to the practical difficulties encountered in field operation. 

 It may be said fairly that there is not now on the market a practicable 

 machine for combating the weevil. It is possible that the most prom- 

 ising device of this nature is one originated by the writer during the 

 latter part of the season of 1907, which is now being patented by the 

 Department of Agriculture. But this machine has not yet been tested 

 upon a sufficiently large scale to justify its commendation for general 

 use. However, it belongs rather to the methods of cultural control, 

 since it combines the action of drawing the fallen, infested forms to 

 the centers of the paths where the weevil stages will be mostly de- 

 stroyed by the action of the direct sunshine, with the coincident cul- 

 tivation of the crop. 



The constant failures experienced in applying any direct method 

 of attack have made it necessary that primary reliance for the control 

 of the wee\al should be placed upon indirect methods of cultural con- 

 trol which have as constantly given more encouraging results. It is 

 now more than ten years since Dr. L. 0. Howard first suggested the 

 importance of cultural methods in fighting this insect. Ever since 

 that time in all of the extensive work which has been cari-ied on by 

 the agents of the Bureau of Entomology, particular attention has been 

 given to this phase of the problem. The general recommendations 

 worked out by the agents of the Bureau have ))een frequently repeated 

 in various publications and are now widely known. They have also 

 been demonstrated in a practical • way through the Demonstration 

 Farm work carried on by the Bureau of Plant Industry. There is evi- 

 dent a large increase in the proportion of the most progressive planters 

 who have adopted part, if not all, of these recommendations. There can 

 be no adequate measurement of the value of the results of this work al- 

 ready obtained and it is equally certain that the possible good results 

 are only beginning to be realized. 



In the best sense of the word, the methods advocated for the cul- 

 tural control of the weevil constitute a "system." The various steps 



