Headquarters were established at Victoria, where office and other 

 facilities were available in the laboratory of the force engaged in 

 investigations relating to the cotton boll weevil. Such laboratory 

 investigations as were possible were conducted, but special attention 

 was given to field work, this being considered of more importance in 

 view of the many facts already known about the life and habits of the 

 boll worm. Through the cooperation of the agent charged with boll- 

 weevil investigations, arrangements were made for the growing of 

 cotton on the contract plan with planters at Calvert, Willspoint, and 

 Hetty, Tex., including in all 140 acres. The locations chosen are 

 fairly typical of the respective sections, and in two the bollworm had 

 been especially destructive the year previous. 



INJURY IN 1903. 



Aside from certain isolated localities here and there in the cotton 

 belt, bollworm injury during 1903 appears to have been confined 

 mostly to Texas and to the southern portion of Indian Territory. 

 The accompanying map (fig. 1), indicates the area most seriously 

 ravaged in Texas. Injury was especially severe in some of the north 

 Texas counties, as Fannin, Lamar, Delta, Hunt, Hopkins, Kaufman, 

 and Van Zandt; and also in the central Texas counties, Navarro, Hen- 

 derson, Limestone, Falls, Bell, and Robertson, the loss in each of these 

 counties l)eing variously estimated at from 20 to 60 per cent of the crop. 



It is hard to arrive at even an approximate estimate of the loss, owing 

 to the difficulty of securing trustworthy data. The tendency to exag- 

 gerate losses from insects is well knoAvn, as is also the tendency to 

 attribute to insect depredations the disastrous effects which may result 

 from changes in the weather or from other conditions. The shaded 

 portion of the map includes the principal cotton-producing area of the 

 State, from which, in 1902, came approximately three-fourths of the 

 total cotton product of Texas. Throughout this area bollworm rav- 

 ages were reported as more or less extensive in 1903. A conservative 

 estimate of the injury, based on data secured from various sovirces 

 and from personal observations, it is believed would be approximately 

 90,000 bales, which, at a valuation of $50 per bale, would mean a loss 

 of $4,500,000. If to this amount be added the value of the cotton 

 seed the total loss sustained would easily exceed $5,000,000. 



According to the estimate of Professor Mally, bollworm injury in 

 Texas in 1902 amounted to approximately $4,750,000, and the area 

 most seriously ravaged coincides rather closely with that injured in 

 1903. It may also be said that the shaded portion of the map marks 

 approximately the area of greatest corn production, and the simple 

 rotation of corn with cotton ^ so largely practiced, has undoubtedly 

 contributed to the seriousness of the bollworm situation at the present 

 time. 



