The prospect of any further picking of cotton being thus rendered 

 so extremely small, a suggestion is obtained as to what is perhaps, 

 after all, the most practical way of reducing the numbers of the weevil 

 and securing approximate inmiunity for the summer of 1897, and that 

 is in the cutting down and burning of the plants at a time when it 

 becomes evident that the cotton yet to be gathered will be very small 

 in quantity. In many localities during the past summer this could 

 have been done to very great advantage as early as the beginning of 

 October, and several large growers of cotton in Nueces and Duval 

 counties have decided to undertake this means next year. The success 

 of this measure will naturally depend upon uniformity of action among 

 the planters of a given region, and the dithculty of securing this uni- 

 formitj^ is the main argument to be used agiiinst it. Onlj' about half 

 the cotton in Duval County, for example, seems to l)e grown by the 

 proprietors of the land ; the remainder is grown by renters, who will 

 be not at all disposed to cut down their plants so long as a chance 

 remains of picking a handful of cotton. In this way the plants in 

 many fields will doubtless be left standing until toward the end of 

 December. 



Could an^'thing like unifornjity be secured, either by legislation or 

 otherwise, it is in this fall destruction of the c-otton that our best hope 

 lies at the present outlook ; and in this connection the further sugges- 

 tion should be made that not all the plants in any given field should 

 be destroyed in this way. All the insects which are in the larval and 

 pupal condition will be destroyed when the cotton is burned, but those 

 which may be in the beetle stage will, by flight, escape alive. If, there- 

 fore, a certain number of the plants are left standing in every field, 

 these plants will attract the remaining beetles, which will settle upon 

 them, so that they may readily be collected day after day and destroyed. 

 If the plants are all cut down and burned, the beetles will spread far 

 and wide ; but if a few are left standing in this way, the weevils will 

 concentrate upon them in such a, way that they can be easily handled. 

 Where there is obviously a certain amount of cotton still to be gath- 

 ered after the early part of October, it may be an object to postpone 

 this cutting down and burning of the plants. We have found that the 

 weevil continues to breed and may be found in the bolls in all stages 

 up to the time of the first frost. The cutting and burning will then 

 accomplish a considerable amount of good, even if done during Novem- 

 ber, although October would be far better. 



From the present outlook, therefore, the best hope which tlie cotton 

 planters in the affected region will have for the future will be in follow- 

 ing this last described method in the fall of 1896, and the more thor- 

 oughly and uniformly (and, in fact, the earlier) this is done in any given 

 locality the greater will be the chance for a good crop the following 

 year. Unfortunately, after talking with many cotton planters in this 

 region, we are b^' no means sure that the plan will be at all generally 

 followed, for the reasons suggested above ; and as the prospects of these 

 planters themselves, as well as the owners of cotton plantations in 

 adjoining regions as 3'et uninfested, will depend almost entirely on the 

 general adoption of this plan or some better one which may yet be dis- 

 covered, it becomes necessary to look forward to the enforcement of 

 remedial work bj' legislation. 



It will be greatly to the interest of all growers of cotton in the prolific 

 district lying to the northeast of the region at present infested to urge 

 the passage of an act during the session of 1896-97 which will bring 

 about the enforcement of remedial work in 1897. This act should ]iro- 



