16 BULLETIN 723, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Avhicli was found to have an infestation by the pink bollworm of 

 about 20 per cent. Thanks to the quarantine law in Arizona and the 

 activity of Dr. A. W. Morrill, the State entomologist, the whole ship- 

 ment was destroyed by fire. 



A little later (Aug. 18, 1913), on the recommendation of the ex- 

 perts of the Bureaus of Entomology and Plant Industry of this 

 department, this quarantine was amended in such manner as to pro- 

 vide, under regulation, for the entry, for milling only, of cotton 

 seed from the States of Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipae, Mexico. A 

 still later amendment permitted the introduction of seed from other 

 of the northern states of Mexico. 



The reasons advanced for allowing such entry of Mexican cotton 

 seed were that no insects which were not found in the United States 

 were known to occur there, and that the culture of cotton is more or 

 less continuous with that in the United States. The absence of any 

 cotton pests in the Republic of Mexico which did not occur in the 

 United States at that time had been established by field inspections 

 by several of the entomologists of the department. 



To protect the United States from the possible entry of the pink 

 bollworm from the Territory of Hawaii, a domestic quarantine was 

 promulgated June 21, 1913, prohibiting the importation of cotton 

 seed and cottonseed hulls from this territory. 



It was thought that the United States was sufficiently safeguarded 

 against the pink bollworm by the quarantines against cotton seed 

 as such, but it soon came to notice that considerable quantities of seed 

 were coming to the United States in bales of lint. A careful ex- 

 amination of picker waste from a large number of bales of Egyptian 

 cotton was made. It was found that considerable numbers of seeds 

 passed around the rollers in the gins and some between the roller 

 and the knife through small openings due to wear. The waste 

 from 37 bales w^hich was examined showed sound seeds, some of them 

 infested, varying from 27 to GOO per bale. The average per bale was 

 215. The variation in the different bales depended upon the grade 

 of the cotton, the lower grades having many more seeds than the 

 better ones. It was estimated on the basis of the examination of 

 waste from the 37 bales that over 16,000 liA^e larvae of the pink boll- 

 worm were being brought to the United States each year, of which 

 several hundred went to the mills in the cotton belt. 



It thus became evident that a quarantine which did not take into 

 consideration the seeds in bales of lint was inadequate. Conse- 

 quently in May, 1914, a public hearing was held to discuss various 

 means of protection. The different projDOsals made were that foreign 

 cotton be excluded altogether from the United States ; that it be ad- 

 mitted only under a guaranty that all seeds had been eliminated, or 



