309 



gested. Inspectors should be appointed to see that these laws are 

 faithfully carried out. In case they are not properly complied with at 

 once the inspectors should have pjwer to hire this work done, and 

 attach the property for compensation to the State. In this way only 

 can we hope to secure concerted action, and without concerted action 

 all efforts to subdue the pest will be in vain. 



Compulsory abandonment of cotton growing on the border. — The rea- 

 sons why cotton growing should be abandoned on the Texas border 

 have already been fully detailed and are very cogent. Laws should be 

 passed decreeing the Kio Grande border of Texas for a width of 50 

 miles to be a non-cotton-producing belt, compelling all persons to aban- 

 don the raising of cotton in that area, and i^roviding for the destruction 

 of all cotton plants (and other malvace^B, if such exist) within the 

 same. If, by the greatest good judgment and most efficient and con- 

 certed labor, the weevil is exterminated in the i^resent infested districts 

 in Texas, and this non cotton zone fails to be established on the border, 

 fresh importations will occur constantly, and all the labor will have to 

 be performed over again. The only alternative lies in Mexico extermi- 

 nating the weevil Avithiii her borders, which it will be almost impossible 

 for her to do, as that is its natural home and its original food-plants 

 l)robably exist there in quantity. 



Cotton growers should organize. — Cotton growers in the State of 

 Texas, in both the infested and the uninfested regions, should organize 

 at once and petition the State legislature to pass suitable laws for the 

 extermination of the pest within the limits of the State, and for the 

 establishment of a non-cotton border zone. Growers in the infested 

 region should desire to rid themselves of the pest, while those in the 

 uninfested region should be equally interested in preventing its further 

 spread and preserving their lields from its attack. If these measures 

 are not carried out, the time is near when Texas will cease to hold its 

 own as the greatest cotton-producing region of the globe. 



^ THE COTTON OR MELON PLANT-LOUSE. 



(Aphis (jossjipii Glover.) 



By TnKODOR Pkrgande. 



Aphis {/ossiipii Crlover, Pat. Off. Rept. 1854, p. 62; do. 1855, p. 68; Re|it. Dept. Agric. 



1876, p. 36. 

 Aphis (Siphono2)hora) cifrifoUi Ashm. (In part; ''Orange Insects," 1880. 

 A2)his citrulH Ashm. '• Florida Dispatch," n. s., vol. I, p. 241, 1882. 

 Aphis cKcnmeris Forbes, Twelfth Rept. Nox. & Beuef. Ins. 111., jjp. 83-91, 1883. 

 (?) Aphis forhesi Weed, Ohio Agr. Exp. Stat. Bull., vol. ii, No. 6, pp. 148-150, 1889. 



After a thorough and careful examination and comparison of thou- 

 sands of specimens from a large variety of plants, from widely separated 

 localities, and after carefully comparing them with most of the descrip- 

 12283— No. 4 3 



