80 



condition of affairs is apparently attributable to certain definite causes, 

 susceptible of explanation. 



It is almost an axiom in economic entomology that greatly increased 

 planting of a crop, to the practical exclusion of all others, is followed 

 by a corresponding increase in insect depredations on the crop thus 

 grown. Those who have followed the development of the cotton - 

 growing industry in the States west of the Mississippi River during 

 the past two or three decades need not be told how extensive this has 

 been. Quotiijg from the Twelfth Census: 



Of the entire crop, 34.05 per cent was grown west of the Mississippi River in 1879; 

 38.44 per cent in 1889, and 43.80 per cent in 1899. * * * Of the total increase of 

 4,099,831 acres in the decade 1890 to 1900, 3,637,398 acres, or 88.7 per cent, were con- 

 tributed by Texas, Indian Territory, and Oklahoma. The increase in Texas was 

 3,025,824 acres; in Indian Territory, 371,987 acres; in Oklahoma, 239,569 acres. 

 This leaves an increase of only 462,433 acres for all the other States, which was nearly 

 reached by the increase of 440,970 acres in Alabama. 



The tide of immigration which in 1850 began to move westward 

 from the more eastern cotton States peopled this newer country largely 

 with cotton farmers, and until recently but little attention has been 

 given to diversified farming, corn and cotton being the principal crops 

 grown. As transportation facilities have improved, the tendency has 

 been to increase the farm acreage in cotton and to depend more and 

 more on the North and West for the food supply. This extension of 

 the cotton area and neglect of crop diversification have resulted partly 

 from the belief that climate and soil were not adapted to the cultiva- 

 tion of those crops grown successfully farther north, but more largely 

 on account of labor and economic considerations. Landowners have 

 for the most part come to consider cotton as the only crop which might 

 be grown on a large scale with reasonable convenience and safetj^ to 

 themselves, and there has thus been developed a condition of finances 

 which has necessitated the planting, by tenants and small landowners 

 in need of credit, of cotton as collateral for the amounts advanced. 



Plantations and farms of large size are the rule, and the tenant 

 system, therefore, finds its maximum development in the area under 

 consideration. This fact, in connection with the large areas in cotton 

 as compared with other crops, and the natural fertility of the soil, pro- 

 ducing a rank, succulent plant growth, have been important factors in 

 bringing about the present importance of bollworm ravages. 



The cotton crop requires the occupancy of the ground from early in 

 the spring until late in the fall, the growth of the plant being checked 

 only by frost. If the fall be unfavorable, the picking may be greatl}^ 

 delayed, often extending through the winter and well into the following 

 spring. Under such circumstances thorough plowing of the ground in 

 the fall or winter, with its consequent beneficial influence in destro3nng 

 hibernating pupse, is not possible, and land is planted to cotton, often 

 during several successive years without a thorough breaking up. 



