2l6 



AGRICULTURE 



It causes a square to drop; usually, a boll remains on the 

 plant, but it becomes stunted and dwarfed and the fiber is 

 ruined. 



The larva, when full-grown, is about three eighths of an inch in 

 length. It then enters the pupa state and becomes a beetle. This 

 round of life takes about four weeks. As the bolls dry in the fall, 



the beetles leave them and seek 

 shelter under rubbish, trash, 

 or weeds, where they spend 

 the winter. 



Since the weevil life is spent 

 and its damage done chiefly 

 in the square or boll, poison 

 and picking cannot be used 

 to any extent. Colonies of 

 ants are being introduced into 

 Texas, which feed on the wee- 

 vil and may help keep the pest 

 in check. Attempts which may 

 be successful are being made 

 to breed a weevil-resisting 

 variety of cotton. 



The best way yet devised to control the weevil is by cultural 

 methods. Trash in and around fields which affords winter 

 quarters for the beetles should be burned. They are most de- 

 structive late in the season, and do not seriously injure an early- 

 maturing crop. This may be secured by the use of early varieties 

 and northern-grown seed and of fertilizers, and by thorough and 

 frequent cultivation of the crop. 



Chinch Bug. The chinch bug injures small grain and corn, 

 and has done more damage than any other insect in the grain-grow- 



Cotton bloom hollowed out by boll weevil 

 larva 



