now TIIK INSECT SPREADS. 



TUe natural spread of the insect by tliglit is slow, aud it is (luestionable whether 

 it would, have traveled from its original homo to the regions now infested by Hight 

 alone, since the cotton-growing regions are widely separated l>y districts in which 

 no cotton is grown. It may have other food plants, although, as previously stated, 

 none have yet been discovered. Should it be found that it is confined to cotton, it 

 has probably been carried from one c tton-growing region to another in loads of 

 ungiiiued cotton when being taken to the gin. It is by such artilicial portage that a 

 large share of its future spread will be brought about, though when it has once 

 entered a region of more or less continuous cotton tields, it will s])rcad by (light from 

 one field to another, season after season. 



I.VVESTIGATIOX 1?Y THE DEPARTMENT UK AUUICLI.TLKr.. 



Twelve years ago a few specimens of this weevil were sent to the Department of 

 Agriculture from Mexico, with the bare statement that it was known to feed xipou 

 cotton. No details were given, however, which indicated that an investigation was 

 necessary. In the summer of 1894 it was sent to the Department by several cotton 

 growers in Texas, and it was at once realized that unless checked the insect would 

 become a very serious enemy to the cotton crop of the United States. An investiga- 

 tion was immediately begun. A special agent, Prof. C. H. Tyler Townsend, was 

 appointed who traveled through the art'ected regions of both Texas and Mexico, and 

 gathered the information upon which this circular is based, most of the matter 

 upon the natural history and habits of the insect l)eing given in his own words. 

 He has been temporarily stationed at Brownsville, Tex., for the purpose of studying 

 the life history of the insect the year through, in the hope that such an investiga- 

 tion will reveal some point in the habits of the species which will render thcsugges- 

 tit)n of some practical remedy possible. The attention of the Texas .State authorities 

 has been called to the importance of the insect, and to the apparent danger of allowing 

 it to increase and spread. The legislature, during its present session, will consider 

 the advisability of adopting (piarantine and restrictive measures, and of enforcing 

 remedial work. 



REMEDIES. 



It is early as yet to suggest remedies, since the Department ha^ not had an oppor- 

 tunity to conduct any extensive experiments. So much yet remains to be fouiul out 

 about the life history of the insect that anything which can be said in this direction 

 at present must be largely theoretical. Living, as the larva does, in the interior of 

 the bud or boll, it cannot be reached by ordinary insecticides, although an applica- 

 tion of paris green or london purple, as for the cotton worm, made when the bolls 

 begin to form, may kill a certain percentage of the adult weevils, since these feed, 

 to some extent, on the outside of the bolls. 



A great deal of good, however, can be done, and the insect can hv largely reduced 

 in numbers, by picking all affected bolls at tlu; time of the cotton i)icking and burn- 

 ing them. If each cotton picker be provided with a sejjarate bag in which to collect 

 the infested bolls, it would not involve a great amount of extra labor to gather 

 these as thti cotton is picked. In regions where other crops can be grown, it will be 

 well to practice rotation of crojjs, and not grow cotton two seasons in succession upon 

 the same land. 



Approved : 



J.. <). Il(jWAi:i), 

 ('HAS. W. Dahnev, ,Ir., Entoiiiolotjiat. 



Assistant Secretary, 



WASHiN(iT()N, D. C, April 2, 1895. 



O 



