THE STATUS OF THE COTTON BOLL WEEVIL IN 1909. 3 



dryness of the summer compared to that in more easterly regions, 

 causing small plants and little shade, will act as an equally strong 

 check upon the insect. On account of these conditions it can not 

 be considered that the boll weevil is an important menace to the 

 cultivation of cotton in the territory west of about the one-hundredth 

 meridian. 



FEATURES OF THE SEASON OF 1909. 



The season of 1909 was very peculiar as regards damage by the 

 boll weevil. The preceding season (1908) was also abnormal, but in 

 quite a different way. The two abnormal seasons coming in succession 

 have naturally given rise to various erroneous ideas about the future. 



The situation in 1908 was affected first by climatic conditions of 

 the fall of 1907 and the following winter. These allowed an unusu- 

 ally small number of weevils to pass through the winter. Experi- 

 ments performed with many thousands of weevils in large field cages 

 showed a survival of about 3 per cent as against 12 per cent after the 

 winter preceding the season of 1907. That is, about four times as 

 many weevils survived to damage the crop in 1907 as in 1908. The 

 records based upon experimental cages were corroborated by the 

 inspection of about 300 fields in June, 1908. From this work it was 

 found that in the representative fields examined there was an average 

 of only 3 weevils per acre in northern and eastern Texas in 1908 as 

 against 226 per acre in 1907. In August, 1908, an examination of the 

 degree of infestation of squares in many localities showed 5 per cent 

 damage as against 54 per cent in 1907. 



Following the remarkably disastrous conditions for the weevil 

 in 1908 in Texas came another series of checks in 1909 in Texas 

 in June, August, and September. This was the more important 

 because the pest had not had sufficient time to recover from the loss 

 suffered in 1908. It has been pointed out elsewhere that the most 

 important check to the weevil in Texas is dry weather. It has 

 been found that the damage done is practically in proportion to the 

 amount of precipitation during the growing season. As the rainfall 

 increases the damage becomes greater. The season of 1909 in Texas 

 will always be notable on account of the extremely dry and hot 

 weather. At Fort Worth there was a monthly deficiency in rain- 

 fall from February to June, inclusive, of over 1 inch. The accumu- 

 lated deficiency for the first seven months in the year was 10.42 

 inches. It must be recalled that this represents practically a third 

 of the normal total annual rainfall at Fort Worth. Other points in 

 the portion of Texas where the bulk of the crop is produced show 

 similar records. At Dallas, for instance, the accumulated deficiency 

 of the year 1909 up to August 1 was 14.28 inches, for Waco 10. 9S 

 inches, for Palestine 13.03 inches, and for Taylor 11.28 inches. In 

 addition to the actual shortage in rainfall very high temperatures 

 occurred. The drought without the high temperatures, or vice versa, 

 would not have affected the weevil especially. The two influences 



