OUR FIGHT AGAINST INSECTS 195 



trict and in other New England towns the gipsy moth 

 has been so reduced in numbers that it is rather rarely 

 to be seen. Moreover, the long and careful study of 

 the gipsy moth has shown that with a certain kind of 

 forest management its destructive work can largely 

 be avoided; that is, by the gradual elimination of its 

 preferred food plants, such as oak, from the mixed 

 forests. 



With the cotton boll-weevil, a species which is at the 

 present time much in the public eye, the parasite 

 method of control has been unsuccessful. Where the 

 weevil has occupied a territory for some years, some 

 of the native parasites of allied weevils have attacked it 

 but never in competent numbers. The early studies of 

 the life history and habits of the weevil which were made 

 in Texas in the early part of the century soon indicated 

 means by which the damage could be greatly lessened 

 by certain farming methods, notably early planting, 

 pushing the crop, picking it early, and destroying the old 

 plants at as early a date as possible. These recommen- 

 dations were repeatedly made, but the southern planters 

 as a rule did not adopt them, and the weevil spread year 

 after year until now practically the whole cotton belt 

 is infested. In the meantime, however, a method of 

 control has been found, in the way of dusting with 

 calcium arsenate, which can be used with profit on good 

 land, and another method has recently been announced 

 by the Florida State Plant Board by which cotton can 

 profitably be grown on poor land in that State, the 

 Florida method being cheaper than the one just men- 

 tioned. The dusting process will be made simpler and 



