more w-estern part of the cotton belt has contributed largely to the 

 more serious depredations of the bollworm in this teiTitory, as com- 

 pared with its injuries in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Those 

 who have followed the development of cotton culture west of the Mis- 

 sissippi during recent years need not be informed how extensive this 

 development has been. Quoting from the Twelfth Census: 



Of the entire crop 34.5 per cent was grown west of the Mississippi River in 1879; 

 38.44 per cent in 1889, and 43.80 per cent in 1899. Of the total increase of 4,099,831 

 acres in the decade, 1890 to 1900, 3,637,398 acres or 88.7 per cent was contributed by 

 Texas, Indian Territory, and Oklahoma. The increase in Texas was 3,025,824 acres; 

 in Indian Territory, 371,987 acres; in Oklahoma 239,569 acres. This leaves an 

 increase of onl ■ 462,433 acres for all the other States, which was nearly reached by 

 the increase of 440,970 acres in Alabama. 



The tide of emigration, which about 1850 began to move westward 

 from the more eastern cotton States, peopled this newer country 

 largely with cotton farmers, and cotton has been the crop raised, 

 largely to the exclusion of ever3'thing else. Until recently but little 

 attention has been given to diversified farming, corn and cotton bein.g 

 the principal crops grown. As transportation facilities have improved 

 the tendenc}'^ has been, perhaps, to depend more and more on the 

 North and West for the food suppl}^ and to increase the farm acreage 

 in cotton. This extension of the cotton area and neglect of crop 

 diversification has resulted partly from the belief that climate and soil 

 were not adapted to the cultivation of those crops grown successfull}^ 

 farther north, but more largely on account of labor and economic 

 considerations. Landowners have for the most part come to consider 

 cotton as the only crop which may be grown on a large scale with 

 reasonable convenience and safet}" to themselves, and there has thus 

 been developed a condition of finances which has necessitated the 

 planting of cotton by tenants and small landowners in need of credit, 

 as collateral for the amounts advanced. 



Plantations and farms of large size are the rule, and the tenant 

 S3^stem, therefore, finds its maximum development in the area under 

 consideration. This fact, in connection with the large areas in cotton, 

 as compared with other crops, and the natural fertility of the soil, 

 which produces a rank succulent plant growth, have been important 

 factors in bringing about the present importance of bollworm ravages. 



The cotton crop requires the occupancy of the ground from earl}^ 

 in the spring until late in the fall, the growth of the plant being 

 checked only by frost. If the fall be luifavorable, picking may be 

 greatly delayed, often extending through the winter and well into the 

 following spring. Under such circumstances a thorough plowing of 

 the ground in the fall or winter, with its consequent beneficial 

 influence in destroying hibernating pupte, is not possible, and land 



