THE PINK BOLLWOEM. 21 



DISCOVERY IN MEXICO. 



Earlier in this bulletin attention has been directed to the fact that 

 when the quarantine against foreign cotton seed was placed in 

 operation the State of Lower California, Mexico, was not included, 

 and that subsequently cotton seed was permitted entry, for milling- 

 purposes only, from certain northern States of Mexico. The reason 

 for this was that several of the entomologists of the department had 

 been m northern Mexico and had found no traces of infestation by 

 any insects other than those which are known to occur in the United 

 States. These explorations were made some years ago, however, and 

 it was still thought desirable to have new examinations made on ac- 

 count of the suspicion that the pink bollworm or some other de- 

 structive pest might have been introduced in the meantime. Accord- 

 ingly arrangements were made in 1916 to dispatch an agent to Mex- 

 ico. Shortly before the time fixed for his departure the activities 

 of the baiidits became so great that the trip had to be postponed 

 indefinitely. If it had not been for these circumstances the presence 

 of the pink bollworm in Mexico would have been known some months 

 before it actually came to the attention of the department. 



On November 1, 1916, the department received from a planter in 

 the Laguna, who Avas then residing in Mexico City, a number of 

 specimens of cotton bolls wdiich had been attacked by insects. The 

 sender was under the impression that the insect was the boll weevil 

 wdiich, though introduced in the Laguna on numerous occasions, had 

 never been able to maintain itself on account of climatic conditions. 

 Several of the bolls were found to be infested by the boll weevil, but 

 others showed the presence of the pink bollworm. The determination 

 w^as first made by Dr. W. D. Pierce and confirmed by Mr. August 

 Busck and other specialists of the Bureau of Entomology. 



On November 3, 1916, the situation was considered by the Federal 

 Horticultural Board, and on November 4 an amendment to the 

 regulations extending the quarantine to cotton seed and cotton from 

 Mexico was issued by the department. An investigation was imme- 

 diately started to determine the extent of the infestation in Mexico 

 and the number of shipments of cotton seed from that country to the 

 United States. It was soon found that a large amount of Mexican 

 cotton seed had been shipped to mills in Texas during the season of 

 1916, In previous years no Mexican cotton seed had been shipped 

 to the United States, and it was only the disturbed conditions in 

 Mexico and the unprecedented high price of seed in the United States 

 which caused the seed mentioned to be forwarded to the United 

 States. 



It was found that a total of 446 carloads of Mexican seed had en- 

 tered the United States during 1916 prior to November 4. These car- 



