96 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



a weevil-free cotton area. The weevil has invaded this 

 territory but has been driven back by climatic conditions. 

 He has shown himself wonderfully adaptable, however, 

 and may in time adjust to the region. 35 The limiting 

 factors in the northern advance are also climatic. The 

 longer winters retard the ravages of the pest by causing 

 its later emergence from hibernating quarters and by 

 requiring a great length of time for development through 

 all its stages. The insect thus gets a late start, and the 

 earlier date of the first killing frost is likely to reduce 

 its numbers. 36 



The Alluvial Belt and the Alabama Black Belt in 

 turn fell under the onslaughts of the enemy. Insect dam- 

 age ran to 9.93 per cent in 1915, 13.36 in 1916, dropped 

 to 5.83 in 1918, and then rose to 13.20 in 1919, 19.95 

 in 1920, and in 1921 was over one-third of the crop, 34 

 per cent. It was freely predicted by British experts and 

 secretly feared by Americans that the United States had 

 lost her cotton monopoly and could never produce an- 

 other great crop. The long staple crop in the Central 

 Valley was practically wiped out, the Gulf Coast line 

 was denuded of cotton, and the Sea Island crop be- 

 came a thing of the past. Writing in 1923, John A. 

 Todd, the English expert, pointed out that there was 

 no immediate prospect of the discovery of any real cure 

 for the weevil, suggested that it had not yet done its 

 worst, and concluded, "The whole state of affairs . . . 

 raises a very serious question as to the future of the 

 American Upland crop." 



The seriousness with which the country as a whole 

 regarded the menacing invasion is reflected in the heroic 



35 Ibid., p. 4. 3G Dept. of Agriculture Yearbook, 1904. 



37 The World's Cotton Crops, pp. 105-6. 



