21 



and difficulty of the proposed plan can only be appreciated in con- 

 nection with a knowledge of the enormous territory affected and the 

 peculiar farniing: conditions which are there in vogue. According 

 to the Twelfth Census the cotton interests of Texas are approximately 

 equal to one-fourth of those of all cotton States combined, covering in 

 189!) ().9C)0,3(')T acres. It has been determined by the investigations 

 of the Bureau of Entomology that probal)ly the most important 

 single way in which the wholesale destruction of the weevil may be 

 obtained is by the early destruction of the cotton plants in the fall 

 before the weevils are ready to go into hibernation quarters. The 

 difficulty of enforcing destruction of fields of cotton over so wide a 

 territory and at a time wheii the j^rospects for continued yield are 

 good need not be commented upon before an audience many indi- 

 viduals of which have had experience in the execution of laws 

 requiring the destruction of a greater or less number of comparatively 

 worthless infested fruit and other plants. 



The present' status of our knowledge concerning our destructive 

 insects and the efficiency of present methods of control is a subject 

 that might well be enlarged upon did time permit. Undoubtedly the 

 three dominant entomological events of the past few years liave been 

 the establishment of the San Jose scale in the East, the invasion of 

 Texas by the cotton boll weevil, and the widespread interest aroused 

 in mosquitoes following the disco A^ery of the role wdiich these insects 

 play in the transmission of malarial and A^ellow fever. 



Since about 1894 the San Jose scale has occupied the attention of 

 many of our Eastern entomologists to the practical exclusion of 

 everything else. The matter of control of the insect in nurseries 

 w'as early solved by a system of inspection and fumigation. Its con- 

 trol in orchards has until recently continued to be a most perplexing 

 problem. The unsatisfactory results following the early experiments 

 with the lime, sulphur, and salt wash practically eliminated this 

 insecticide from consideration among possible remedies. Attention 

 was therefore directed to other means of control. Kerosene and 

 crude petroleum, pure and in mechanical mixture with water and in 

 soap emulsions of varying strengths, various soap w^ashes, hydro- 

 cyanic-acid gas, parasitic fungi, and, in fact, almost the whole 

 gamut of insecticides was run through only to discover, after some 

 years, that the lime, sulj^hur, and salt wash was, after all, a most 

 satisfactory treatment. The establishment of this fact came, so to 

 speak, in the nick of time. WTiile there is abundant testimony as 

 to the safeness and efficiency of the mineral oils in the control of this 

 insect on such fruit trees as the peach and plum, j^et the trouble lies 

 in the danger following the injudicious applications which persons 

 inexperienced in such work are likel}' to make. The many instances 

 of severe and often fatal injury are calculated to bring the recom- 



