CONTROL OF THE BOLL WEEVIL. 7 
no food plant but cotton) was the basis of the recommendation made 
in 1894 that the pest be exterminated absolutely in the United States 
by the abandonment of cotton culture in a very restricted region. At 
that time only a few counties in Texas were affected. The procedure 
would have involved but small expense. Even now the weevil could 
be exterminated in a single season by preventing both the planting of 
cotton and the growth of volunteer plants throughout the infested 
territory. This proposal has been made at various times, notably 
at the National Boll-Weevil Convention held in Shreveport, La., in 
1906. Various difficulties, however, appear to render the plan 
entirely impracticable. In the first place, there would be strong 
opposition in large regions in Texas where the planters have learned 
to combat the weevil successfully. Moreover, the expense would be 
enormous. A large army of inspectors would be required. The 
work would not end with the prevention of the planting of cotton, 
but would necessarily extend to the destruction of volunteer plants 
which would be found along roads and railroads, about gins and 
oil mills, and on plantations throughout the infested region. The 
loss to mills, railroads, merchants, banks, and others dependent 
upon the cotton trade would complicate matters further. Unless 
a plan of reimbursement were followed, there would be strenuous 
opposition from these quarters, and any scheme of payment for 
damages would add very materially to the cost. From a theo- 
retical standpoint, all the expenses involved would be justified. 
The saving in a few years would more than offset the cost. Never- 
theless, the practical difficulties undoubtedly will always prevent 
the execution of the plan. All interests now favor the necessary 
adjustment of conditions to the boll weevil and the practice of the 
known measures of control rather than total eradication, which was 
once practicable, but now little more than visionary. 
In Bulletin No. 114 it was shown that during the several years in 
which careful experiments have been performed the average rate 
of winter survival was 7.6 per cent. It is noteworthy that fre- 
quently the survival is much smaller. In the experiments to which 
reference has been made it ranged from 0.5 per cent to 20 per cent. 
The most important means of controlling the boll weevil that are 
available are designed to increase this tremendous mortality caused 
by natural conditions during the winter. The destruction of any 
certain number of weevils during the winter is much more impor- 
tant than the destruction of much larger numbers:at any other 
season. The best means at the command of the farmer for increas- 
ing the winter mortality is through the uprooting and burning or 
burial of the stalks at an early date in the fall. Numerous experi- 
ments have shown the increased mortality due to depriving the 
500 
