POISONING COTTON-BOLL WEEVILS. 



9 



large and leafy and the weevils had multiplied so rapidly that one of 

 the heaviest infestations ever witnessed by the writer prevailed. 

 Blooming had practically ceased and the weevils had cleaned up the 

 squares so thoroughly that they were attacking the bolls in enormous 

 numbers and all bolls, even to the largest present, were being riddled 

 with punctures. It seemed probable that on one section no bolls 

 would be left to open. It was, of course, too late to attempt to set 

 a new crop by poisoning, but an effort was made to save the bolls 

 then present on the plants. For this purpose large-scale treatments 

 were continued from August 23 to about September 1, several hun- 

 dred acres in all being treated. At the beginning of the work a series 



Fig. 6.— View along dividing line between poisoned and unpoisoned c jtton in Lake Vista Cut No. 2, with 

 poisoned cotton to left of view; second picking only, October 26, 1917, Scott, Miss. 



of counts showed that 86 per cent of the squares in the cotton 

 which was to be poisoned had been weevil-punctured. This cotton 

 was given a single poisoning and, about 10 days later, it was found 

 that the weevil infestation in these same cuts had been reduced so 

 that only 36 per cent of the squares were punctured. During the 

 same period the infestation in the adjoining unpoisoned cotton had 

 been increasing steadily. Practically all of the poisoned cuts started 

 blooming again at this time and a -number of them reached what 

 is ordinarily termed the "flower-garden" stage of blooming, five 

 to seven blooms per plant on a single day being not at all rare. 

 In starting this treatment it had been anticipated that several 

 applications would be necessary to produce the desired result, but 



