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artificial means of distribution and would be expensive and difficult 

 to enforce. The benefits could ])e no more than temporary', and might 

 be more than counterbalanced by the damage resulting from inter- 

 ference with shipping. It seems that the best that planters in any 

 uninfested locality can do to prevent the incoming of the weevils 

 would be only palliative, and would consist in avoiding the procure- 

 ment of seed from localities that are known to be infested, and also in 

 avoiding as much as possible the hauling of hulls and other seed prod- 

 ucts in which the weevils are more or less likely to be found from the 

 mills to the vicinity of cotton fields. 



Unfortunately, it must be confessed that during the time the weevil 

 has been in Texas it has displayed no tendency toward dying out. In 

 south Texas it is practically as troublesome now, except in so far as 

 it is aflfected by changes in managing the crop, as it was in 1895; and 

 in Mexico, where it has existed for a much longer period, it is appar- 

 entl}^ as plentiful as ever. The investigators of the Division of Ento- 

 mology have made an especially careful study of all the features of 

 the life histor}^ of the pest that would throw an}^ light upon the ques- 

 tion of whether it will, like many other injurious species, die down 

 and gradually become a much less important enemy to the plant than 

 now. In this work attention has been paid to parasites and diseases, 

 and an exhaustive study has been made of temperature conditions in 

 connection with several months' work on the hibernation of the pest, 

 at Victoria, by Mr. Schwarz. Likewise the accounts of related species 

 both in this country and in Europe have been used for comparison. 

 It is true that it is a well-known general observation that many species 

 of insects, upon reaching a new region, are stimulated by an abundance 

 of food and the absence of the conditions that might have held them 

 measureabl}^ in check elsewhere to a more rapid multiplication than 

 normal. In order to avoid errors from this source as much as possible 

 the laboratory of the investigation was located in the cotton-producing 

 portion of the southern part of Texas, where the infestation has been 

 longest. Nevertheless, all the observations and experiments have 

 failed to reveal any factors that show any indication of causing the 

 pest to become much less destructive than now. After ten years, 

 during which it has maintained practically constant numbers, there 

 seems but little risk in the statement that the pest will probably 

 always be as destructive in a series of years as it has been in Texas 

 since 1894. However, planters will undoubtedly gradually adopt new 

 methods in raising cotton, so that the damage in any given locality 

 will not be as noticeable as it was in the beginning, and climatic con- 

 ditions will undoubtedly cause temporary diminution of the numbers 

 of the pest in certain localities. In Texas these conditions have given 

 rise almost every year to the supposition on the part of some planters 



