2 THE STATUS OF THE COTTON BOLL WEEVIL IN 1909. 



except the western cotton-producing counties, which in recent years 

 have contributed increasingly to the crop of the State. Practically 

 all of the State of Louisiana is within the infested territory. In 

 Mississippi, 23 counties are more or less infested; in Arkansas, 20; 

 and in Oklahoma, 15. Of the total cotton acreage in the States 

 concerned, the weevil is found in about 80 per cent in Texas, 30 per 

 cent in Arkansas, 25 per cent in Mississippi, 35 per cent in Oklahoma, 

 and practically 100 per cent in Louisiana. This area comprises very 

 nearly 30 per cent of the cotton acreage in the United States in the 

 year 1909, or about 37 per cent of the total number of square miles 

 found within the cotton belt. In other words, a portion of the 

 infested territory includes relatively a greater acreage devoted to 

 cotton than the remainder of the belt. 



It is important to note that along the extreme outer edge of the 

 infested territory in the United States the weevils did not invade 

 the cotton fields until late in the season of 1909; too late, in fact, to 

 do any damage to the crop of that year. 



The infested area includes many regions in which the boll weevil 

 problem takes on local aspects. There is the greatest diversity of 

 climatic and other conditions which react on the insect in such a 

 way as to establish areas of varying degrees of damage. These 

 individual areas will not, of course, display a constant amount of 

 damage each season, but in a series of years will show features that 

 serve to differentiate them from each other. In general, the damage 

 is least on the dry plains of the western portion of Texas and increases 

 toward the east. Where a large precipitation is combined with the 

 presence of an abundance of timber, as in portions of Louisiana, the 

 damage is greatest. 



Nothing has transpired up to the present time to indicate that the 

 weevil will not eventual^ reach the northernmost and easternmost 

 portions of the cotton belt. Its advance to the east will be more 

 rapid than to the north. This is on account of the lower tempera- 

 ture in the north, to which it seems necessary for the weevil to adapt 

 itself more or less slowly. In some seasons the northward advance 

 will probably be checked altogether by abnormal conditions, but the 

 experience now acquired seems to indicate that the weevil will 

 eventually overcome any climatic barriers that may be encountered. 

 Although the advance to the east and north seems to be certain, 

 there is a large region in the west into which the weevil can make its 

 way only with very great difficulty, if at all. In the high, open plains 

 of western Texas, where cotton production has developed enormously 

 in the last ten years, the conditions of the winters and summers 

 combined will probably serve as an effective barrier against the 

 weevil. In that region there is little timber in which the insects 

 may obtain shelter from the severe winters. Moreover, the normal 



