B4 
very few, if any, left the plants by reason of any agitation that would 
not break the. branches or bark the stems. Occasionally, however, 
a weevil passing over a leaf is jarred to the ground. Often entirely 
too much stress is placed upon the importance of jarring the adult 
weevils to the ground. When specimens are collected by hand and 
thrown on the surface of the ground, especially if it be finely pul- 
verized, the great majority will be killed almost instantly by the 
heat. This has caused the mistake on the part of careless observers 
of supposing that many weevils could be killed by jarring them to 
the ground. The difficulty, as pointed out, is that it is totally out 
of the question to jar more than one weevil out of many hundreds 
to the ground by any process that would not injure the plants 
severely. Nevertheless, the effect of a cross-arm of wood or iron whip- 
ping through the tops of the plants is recommended for the reason 
that the squares are thrown to the ground, where the heat has its 
earliest possible effect upon them. 
HAND PICKING OF WEEVILS. 
Gathering the weevils by hand is an operation of limited appli- 
cability. Where the fields of cotton are small and there is an abun- 
dance of labor it is sometimes practicable to pick the early emerging 
weevils from the plants and later to pick up the early fallen squares. 
Everything depends, however, on the conditions being favorable. On 
large places it will undoubtedly not often be found practicable to 
carry on this process. In an experiment performed by the Bureau 
of Entomology on a plantation worked by convict labor, giving the 
optimum conditions for the experiment, no results whatever followed 
thorough pickings twice each week for two months in the spring, 
begutining with the appearance of the first weevils. In another in- 
stance, at Gurley, Tex., more than 40,000 weevils were picked on an 
area of 8 acres by means of paid labor, beginning in April and con- 
tinuing until July. On the 8 acres where this work was done a crop 
of about 50 pounds per acre in excess of that on other areas was ob- 
tained. This was not sufficient, however, to pay for more than a 
very small fraction of the work done. From these and other experi- 
ments the Bureau of Entomology recommends in a guarded manner 
the picking by hand of weevils and squares. Undoubtedly good 
may be accomplished under certain conditions, but planters should 
be careful not to depend too much upon it and not to make too great 
an outlay for it. 
Disposition of adult weevils and infested squares When adult weevils 
are picked by hand they should be killed by means of oil or fire, or 
buried deeply in the ground. When infested squares are picked, how- 
ever, an entirely different procedure should be followed. Many of the 
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