﻿16 BULLETIN 1397, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUBE 



of oil. The 1920 seed handled by this mill averaged 13% per cent of oil; 

 the 1921 seed, 14 per cent. Good seed formerly weighed, on an average, 25 

 tons per carload ; now a carload is found to weigh but 21 to 22 tons. 



PRECAUTIONS TAKEN TO PREVENT THE INTRODUCTION OF THE 

 PINK BOLLWORM INTO THE UNITED STATES 



With the approval of the plant quarantine act on August 20, 1912, 

 the Department of Agriculture for the first time obtained authority 

 to regulate the importations of plants and plant products from for- 

 eign countries and to take the steps necessary to prevent the intro- 

 duction of injurious insects and plant diseases by such importations. 

 The pink bollworm was one of the first insects to be considered after 

 the plant quarantine act went into operation. Its foreign status and 

 its menace to American cotton were first brought to the attention of 

 the Federal Horticultural Board in April, 1913, and on May 20 of 

 that year a formal hearing was called at Washington to consider 

 the advisability of prohibiting the importation of cottonseed from 

 all foreign countries. A quarantine was promulgated on May 28, 

 1913, to take effect on July 1 of that year. This quarantine forbade 

 the importation into the United States of cottonseed of every species 

 and variety, and cottonseed hulls from any foreign locality and 

 country excepting the Imperial Valley in the State of Lower Cali- 

 fornia in Mexico. The importation from this region in Mexico was 

 covered by regulations. The importance of this action was shown in 

 May, 1913, by the receipt in Arizona of a shipment of 500 pounds 

 of Egyptian seed which was found to have an infestation by the 

 pink bollworm of about 20 per cent. Thanks to the quarantine law 

 of Arizona and the activity of A. W. Morrill, the State entomologist, 

 the whole shipment was destroyed by fire. 



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

 perts of the Bureaus of Entomology and Plant Industry of this 

 department, this quarantine was amended to provide, under regula- 

 tion, for the entry, for milling only, of cottonseed from the States of 

 Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, Mexico. A still later amendment per- 

 mitted the introduction of seed from other of the northern States of 

 Mexico. 



The reasons advanced for allowing the regulated entry of Mexican 

 cottonseed were that no insects which were not found in the United 

 States were known to occur in Mexico, and that the culture of cotton 

 there 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 pihk 

 bollworm from the Territory of Hawaii, a domestic quarantine was 

 promulgated June 24, 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 cottonseed 

 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 

 examination of picker waste from a large number of bales of 

 Egyptian cotton was made. It was found that considerable num- 

 bers of seeds passed around the rollers in the gins and some between 



