12 CROP PEST COMMISSION OF 



must be evident. Even though the insect is each year gaining 

 additional territory and even though ultimate infestation of the 

 entire cotton belt appears inevitable, much is to be gained by 

 preventing the pest obtaining a foothold many miles ahead of 

 the gradually-advancing frontier of infestation. For example, 

 if infestations now occurred in the north central portion of 

 Tjouisiana and at points along the Mississippi River, as well as 

 in. that portion of the State east of the river, it is evident that 

 the entire State would become infested much sooner than if all 

 such outbreaks were prevented and the weevil forced to limit its 

 progress into new territory to actual bodily movement. 



Even if the gradual advance of the pest cannot be perma- 

 nently prevented, there is certainly no justification for permit- 

 ting it to be accelerated. To abandon quarantine measures sim- 

 ply because the weevil gains new territory each year by flight, 

 would be analagous to the case of a large city in which a confla- 

 gration occurs, spreading gradually, and in which- on that ac- 

 count the authorities permit other fires to be started in other 

 portions of the city, each of which in turn would itself become a 

 conflagration involving a large area. 



It is pleasing to note that not a single case of infestation by 

 the boll weevil is known to occur east of the territory which has 

 "been occupied by the weevil in its migrations, the eastern limit of 

 which is virtually coincident with the quarantine line established 

 by the Commission, and we have therefore every reason to believe 

 that this quarantine has been entirely successful and has thereby 

 saved not only Eastern Louisiana, but States east- of us, from in- 

 festation through shipments of the articles referred to above. 

 There is at least no evidence to indicate that the enforcement of 

 these quarantines by the Commission has not accomplished as 

 much in restricting the spread of the boll weevil as could bo ac- 

 complished by any agency subject to human control. 



That the boll weevil has not appeared at any point east of 

 the territory gained by the migrations has been construed by 

 some as evidence that the weevil is never transported in cotton 

 seed, hulls, etc. No conclusion could be more erroneously drawn, 

 for the observations made upon the spread of this insect in Texas, 

 ^where no such quarantines were enforced, as well as the data ob- 

 tained in connection with the hibernating habits of the weevil 



