PARASITES AND NATURAL ENEMIES. 
It is safe to say that little assistance will be derived from the work 
of natural enemies and parasites upon this insect. Of the former none 
of any importance has been found. Several parasites, however, have 
been found to attack it, and in one or two localities some little good 
has resulted from their work. They have been abundant only, however, 
late in the season, after the weevil has completed its damage for the 
year, and at a time when a minimum of good can be accomplished by 
the destruction of the larve. The majority of the weevils in a given 
field fail to hibernate successfully, being killed by cold weather or some 
other cause, so that the work of parasites at this time does not count. 
Careful estimates, however, show that from 15 to 20 per cent of the 
weevil. larvee in fallen squares in November, 1895, at Beeville and 
Kenedy were destroyed by parasites. 
REMEDIES. 
In considering the matter of remedies it should be understood at the 
outset that experience has shown that none of the general applications 
of insecticides is of the slightest value against this species as a means 
of clearing infested fields. The weevil in its work in growing cotton 
is thoroughly protected against poisons, breeding as it does within the 
blossoms and squares. As demonstrated by the experience of the 
spring of 1896, poisons may, however, be used as a means of destroying 
overwintered beetles on volunteer cotton. The beetles which have sur- 
vived the winter collect in the early spring on the first sprouts which 
appear on old cotton and eat the partially expanded leaves and the 
tender leaf stems, and at this stage can be poisoned by the application 
of an arsenical to this new growth. To do this it will be necessary to 
thoroughly spray the growing tips, and this should be done when volun- 
teer cotton is very small, preferably mere sprouts: or bunches of leaves 
an inch or two in length; later on the growing parts can not be easily 
reached. With an ordinary knapsack pump a field may be gone over 
rapidly and the volunteer cotton thoroughly treated, the nozzle being 
directed at-each growing tip. The first application should be made as 
soon as the volunteer plants sprout, and perhaps repeated two or three 
times within as many weeks. As ordinarily cultivated, the number of 
volunteers is small and the time required for the thorough spraying of 
such plants will not be great. <A strong solution should be applied, 
viz, 1 pound of the poison to 50 gallons of water, because no harm will 
be done if the volunteer plants are ultimately killed by the poison. 
The practicability of this method has been demonstrated, but it has 
been abundantly shown that the very best system of control of the 
weevil is in a system of cultivation of cotton, to be later described, 
which will prevent all possibility of volunteer growth whatever. The 
poisoning and the other palliative measures relative to volunteer 
erowths are given, therefore, merely as a means of correcting an evil 
which may result if the cultural system referred to has been neglected. 
These remarks apply, for instance, to the trap system, which we have 
hitherto recommended among others. This consists of attracting the 
earliest beetles to a few cotton plants left at convenient points and 
protected from winter killing by forced watering, so that they will 
branch out and acquire buds often in advance of volunteer cotton. 
From these the beetles may be collected by hand when they are attracted 
