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to them on the first warm days, or, preferably, these plants may be 
poisoned, as already suggested. 
The fact that the spring generation develops only upon volunteer 
cotton has suggested the possibility that the insect will not spread 
beyond the region where volunteer cotton will grow in spring, but 
unfortunately this possibility is by no means absolutely to be relied 
upon. Nevertheless, the destruction of such volunteer plants as come 
up in cornfields and in abandoned fields which the previous year were 
planted to cotton, unless they be systematically poisoned, can not be 
too strongly recommended, for it is a matter of observation that the 
shade afforded by the corn or the rank-growing weeds which come up in 
abandoned fields is especially favorable to the development of the weevils. 
While the plants are young, and where labor is as cheap as it is in 
south Texas, a great deal of good can be accomplished by picking and 
burning the fallen squares, and if this is done promptly a large num- 
ber of the insects will be destroyed. It should be done at least twice, 
at intervals of three weeks, during the period while the plants are 
small. This method becomes impracticable, however, as soon as the 
plants begin to branch out, on account of the difficulty of finding the 
squares on the ground. 
The idea of picking the affected bolls during the cotton picking was 
suggested in the writer’s first published account of this insect. It was 
thought that the affected bolls could be so readily recognized that 
many thousands of the insects could be destroyed by the cotton pickers 
by picking these affected bolls and carrying them away in a separate 
receptacle to be burned. The amount of extra labor involved in this 
operation, however, would be very considerable, and the affected bolls 
in many instances are not to be recognized at a glance. 
During the past year Mr. Stronhall, of Beeville, has devised a 
machine for jarring the affected squares and blossoms from young cot- 
ton plants and collecting them at the same time. This apparatus has 
been given a partial trial the past season, but was not seen at work by 
any of the entomologists engaged in the investigation. It is arranged 
to brush the cotton from both directions vigorously, and the loosened 
bolls and squares are caught on receiving trays and ultimately burned 
or otherwise destroyed. The brushes work in opposite directions and 
strike the cotton plants on either side. It can be adjusted to plants of 
different sizes. 
The careful investigation of this weevil during the past two or three 
years by the Division of Entomology has fully demonstrated the 
supreme importance of the cultural method of control, to which fact 
we gave special prominence in our first circular on this insect. There 
can be no question now that in the proper system of growing cotton a 
practically complete remedy for the weevil exists. In the first place, it 
has been established beyond question that the conditions of cultivation 
which make volunteer growth possible also make the continuance of 
the weevil inevitable. Of first importance is the early removal of the 
old cotton in the fall, preferably in November or earlier. This can be 
done by throwing out the old plants with a plow, root and all, and 
afterwards raking them together and burning them. This treatment 
should be followed, as promptly as may be, by deep plowing, say to a 
depth of 6 or 8 inches. This leaves the field comparatively clean of old 
cotton stalks, facilitates thorough cultivation the following year, and, 
at the same time, collécts and destroys all of the weevil larvee and pup 
