44 INSECTS AND MAN 



ing a little, now losing ground, in the face of a sudden 

 frost or a concerted display of destructive work by the 

 slowly awaking farmers, but probably the most harmful 

 plant pest, and the heaviest tax upon the farmers of the 

 South." Some authorities go further and say that the pest 

 is the most serious danger that has ever threatened any 

 agricultural industry. 



The financial loss caused by this insect is difficult to 

 estimate ; cotton-growers are, somewhat naturally, prone to 

 exaggerate the damage and to attribute losses to the insect 

 which should more correctly be put down to bad cultiva- 

 tion or other sources. A careful estimate by the American 

 Government officials, however, shows the difference in the 

 average yield per acre in Texas, between the periods 1893- 

 1901 and 1903-11, to amount to a loss of $2'7 per acre, 

 not counting the value of the seed, or, for the total cotton 

 acreage of the state, $27,000,000 per year ! And this for 

 Texas alone! "Out of evil comes good," and it is some 

 compensation to know that the advent of the weevil has 

 literally forced crop rotation upon the farmers of the 

 afflicted districts. So profitable had the cotton-growing 

 industry proved that the growers were loth to abandon, 

 even temporarily, an industry that paid them so well. 

 Before the coming of the weevil, the Texas growers believed 

 they could keep pace with the ever-growing demand for 

 cotton the world over, and at least double their normal 

 production. The fertility of the land was so great that 

 such important matters as seed selection, fertilisers, and 

 rotation had received little or no consideration; but the 

 boll weevil has put a different complexion on these affairs, 

 and more scientific methods of cultivation must prevail if 

 the insect is to be kept within reasonable bounds, for the 

 only natural barrier to its spread is the cold of the more 

 northerly states. As the same conditions regulate the 

 northern limit of the cotton-growing districts, there is little 

 comfort to be derived from the fact. 



