274 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1945 



present since 1892. He reported briefly on the life history and habits 

 of the boll weevil, recommended the destruction of cotton stalks to 

 kill the overwintering weevils, and the establishment of a noncotton 

 zone to prevent further spread. At that time the value and practi- 

 cability of pest eradication was not recognized by the public, and 

 no steps were taken to deport this undesirable alien. 



By 1895 the boll weevil had spread northward to San Antonio and 

 eastward to Wharton, Tex., and was causing such serious damage 

 that Dr. C. W. Dabney, the Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, upon 

 recommendation of Dr. L. O. Howard, Chief of the Division of Ento- 

 mology, appeared before the Texas Legislature urging the enactment 

 of a pest law and the creation of a noncotton zone to prevent further 

 spread into the Cotton Belt, but unfortunately this legislation failed 

 to pass. The spread continued, particularly to the north and east 

 (fig. 1), the weevil reaching Louisiana in 1903 and crossing into 

 Mississippi in 1907. When the Mississippi River failed to halt the 

 advance of the boll weevil, it was realized that all the eastern part 

 of the Cotton Belt would soon become infested. In 1916 the boll 

 weevil reached the Atlantic seaboard in Georgia and by 1922 (31 years 

 after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico) had become established 

 nearly to the northern limits of cotton production and in more than 

 600,000 square miles of the Cotton Belt. Its advance was largely by 

 flight and local movement of unginned cotton and cotton seed to and 

 from the public gins, and there are but few authentic records of iso- 

 lated establishment ahead of the general line of spread. In the late 

 summer boll weevils for unknown reasons take to the air and disperse 

 in all directions. This migration by repeated short flights enabled 

 the boll weevil to move forward from 60 to 160 miles per season. 

 Although several States and the Federal Government had quaran- 

 tines and regulations to prevent spread through the movement of 

 infested cotton products, it is remarkable that the boll weevil moved 

 across the Cotton Belt mainly under its own power. That spread 

 with infested cotton or seed can occur is shown by the accidental 

 establishment of the boll weevil in Haiti in 1932. 



Careful surveys made each fall by Federal and State entomologists 

 to determine the new areas infested furnish a complete record of the 

 progress across the Cotton South (fig. 1). The more rapid and exten- 

 sive spread toward the east and north than to the west is due to the 

 hot, dry climate from the western third of Texas and Oklahoma west- 

 ward and the cold winters of the extreme northern edge of the Cotton 

 Belt. 



PANIC FOLLOWED THE BOLL WEEVIL 



As the boll weevil moved in its relentless march across the Cotton 

 Belt, the damage it caused threatened to ruin the cotton industry. To 



