COTTON 177 



the total yearly loss to the South through this 

 insect probably amounts to a hundred million 

 dollars. 



WHAT THE DESPERADO IS LIKE 



The Mexican Boll Weevil is not a ferocious- 

 looking foe. It is only a small gray beetle, with a 

 reddish-brown snout, and a body scarcely a quarter 

 of an inch in length the desperado that causes 

 all this trouble and fright. It hardly seems possible 

 that he could strike terror to the hearts of so many 

 thousand people, or that he could attract so much 

 space in the newspapers. As with men, it is not the 

 man but the work done that calls for praise or pun- 

 ishment; so with the boll weevil, it is not the insect 

 (for you have seen scores all about you that look 

 more capable of evil) but his methods of attack, 

 his numbers, that have alarmed the millions of peo- 

 ple dependent upon one of the greatest industries 

 of the world. 



THE LIFE HISTORY 



As the life of one man is the history of all men, 

 so is the life of one of these insects the life of all. 

 And clearly to understand him and his destructive 

 work, we must follow the life history through its 

 cycle, for it is during one of the intermediate stages 

 that the greatest trouble is done. 



Let us take him when his work for the year is 

 over: when his evil deeds for the season are ended, 

 and follow him sufficiently close and far enough for 

 observation purposes, since that is the only way 

 we can fully understand his life. 



The weevil has done its work for the season. 



