LOSSES DUE TO THE BOLL WEEVIL. 21 



made. The five western States of Cuba are infested, and possibly the 

 weevil is to be found throughout the entire island. It has not been 

 found in any of the other West Indian Islands. 



LOSSES DUE TO THE BOLL WEEVIL. 1 



Various estimates of the loss occasioned to cotton planters by the 

 boll weevil have been made. In the nature of the case such esti- 

 mates must be made upon data that are difficult to obtain and in the 

 collection of which errors must inevitably occur. There is, of course, 

 a general tendency to exaggerate agricultural losses as well as to 

 attribute to a single factor damage that is the result of a combination 

 of many influences. Before the advent of the boll weevil into Texas 

 unfavorable weather at planting time, summer droughts, and heavy 

 fall rains caused very light crops to be produced. Now, however, the 

 tendency is everywhere to attribute all of the shortage to the weevil. 

 Nevertheless, the pest is undoubtedly the most serious menace that 

 the cotton planters of the South have ever been compelled to face, if 

 not, indeed, the most serious danger that ever threatened any agri- 

 cultural industry. It was generally considered, until the appearance 

 of the pest in Texas, that there were no apparent difficulties to 

 prevent an increase in cotton production that would keep up to the 

 enlarging demand of the world until at least twice the present normal 

 crop of about 12,000,000 bales should be produced. Now, however, in 

 the opinion of most authorities, the weevil has made this possibility 

 somewhat doubtful, although the first fears entertained in many 

 localities that the cultivation of cotton would have to be abandoned 

 have generally been given up. An especially unfavorable feature of 

 the problem is in the fact that the weevil reached Texas at what 

 would have been, from other considerations, the most critical time in 

 the history of the production of the staple in the State. The natural 

 fertility of the cotton lands had been so great that planters had 

 neglected such matters as seed selection, varieties, fertilizers, and 

 rotation, that must eventually receive consideration in any cotton- 

 producing country. In general, the only seed used was from the 

 crop of the preceding year, unselected, and of absolutely unknown 

 variety, and the use of fertilizers had not been practiced at all. 

 Although it is by no means true that the fertility of the soil had been 

 exhausted, nevertheless, on many of the older plantations in Texas 

 the continuous planting of cotton with a run-down condition of the 

 seed combined to make a change necessary in order that the industry 

 might be continued profitably. 



In 1905 Prof. E. D. Sanderson 2 made a very careful estimate of 

 the damage done by the boll weevil in Texas for the six years ending 

 with 1904. During this period he found that there had been an 

 average annual decrease due to the boll weevil of 43 per cent, amount- 

 ing to 0.182 bale per acre a year in the infected territory. 



Prof. Sanderson found that in 1899 the 18 counties infested at that 

 time showed a decrease of 0.135 bale per acre, of which it was con- 

 sidered that 150,000 bales were chargeable to the weevil. In 1900 

 the great storm of September complicated matters so that no reliable 

 estimate of injury could be made. In 1901 the general conditions 



i The following paragraph is modified from Bui. No. 51, Bureau of Entomology, pp. 21-25. 



3 The Boll Weevil and Cotton Crop of Texas, published by the Texas Department of Agriculture. 



