THE WEATHER AND THE WEEVIL 95 



Guatemala ant to prey upon the boll weevil proved a 

 failure." 



In spite of the experimental work of the Department 

 of Agriculture and the $50,000 prize offered by the 

 Texas legislature, the weevil spread rapidly. Within the 

 period from 1892 to 1922 the spread of the insect had 

 covered the whole of the Cotton Belt with the exception 

 of western Texas and northern North Carolina. By the 

 end of that year 614,213 square miles of cotton-pro- 

 ducing territory had fallen before the advancing plague 

 of insects. Practically 87 per cent of the Cotton Belt 

 and 96 per cent of the crop were under infestation. 34 

 At first the spread had been slow, but by 1900 half of 

 Texas was infested. For the first ten years after crossing 

 the Rio Grande the weevil's annual rate of spread was 

 5,640 square miles. In 1903 the weevil had reached the 

 western tip of Louisiana, by 1906 Arkansas. The Mis- 

 sissippi River was crossed in 1907, and by 1910 the wee- 

 vil had covered southern Mississippi and penetrated into 

 Alabama. For the ten years from 1901 to 1911 the insect 

 increased his annual spread to 26,880 square miles. After 

 reaching Georgia in 1914 it spread rapidly, and in 1916 

 the weevil increased its flights to add 71,800 square miles 

 of new territory. It touched South Carolina in 1917, 

 swept across the state in two years and virtually cov- 

 ered North Carolina by 1923. The maps prepared by 

 the Department of Agriculture show that the rate of 

 spread of cotton boll weevil was much more rapid to 

 the east than to the north or west. The droughts, as 

 mentioned, have so far preserved the Great Plains as 



84 Hunter and Coad, The Boll Weevil Problem, Farmers' Bulletin 

 1329, p. 2. 



