26 



considerable area within the outside line in which the weevil has not 

 yet reached great numbers. 



At frequent intervals during the season of 190^1: accounts have 

 appeared regarding the occurrence of the weevil at points far beyond 

 the limits of the infested territory as indicated in fig. 1. It seems 

 likely that at any time the pest may be carried far outside of the 

 present infested territor}'^ through the shipment of cotton seed or 

 certain other cotton products. In view of this fact the Bureau of 

 Entomology has paid especial attention to these reports. Entomolo- 

 gists connected with the Bureau have investigated rumors originating 

 in parts of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Indian Territory, and through 

 cooperation with State and station entomologists the Bureau has also 

 received specific information about reports in Georgia, South Caro- 

 lina, and elsewhere. Fortunateh^, it has been determined that all 

 these reports have been based upon misidentifications of the numerous 

 species of insects which are apt to be found in cotton fields. 



In Texas the infested area extends from Brownsville, where the 

 weevil originally entered the State, to Sherman. In Louisiana six of 

 the westernmost parishes are known to be generally infested and 

 three others have a small number of weevils within their boundaries. 

 The cotton acreage involved in this territory amounts to 32 per cent 

 of the cotton acreage in the United States, and produced in 1900 about 

 37 per cent of the total crop of this country, or over one-fourth of the 

 crop of the world for that 3^ear. 



There are some features of special interest in the situation in Cuba. 

 Although the weevil has long been known to occur in the island, it 

 has attracted very little attention on account of the fact that the cul- 

 tivation of cotton was abandoned for a long time in favor of crops that 

 have been more profitable. Now, however, with the better price of the 

 staple and rather unsatisfactor3^ returns from some other, crops, cot- 

 ton is being planted upon a considerable scale. Mr. E. A. Schwarz 

 was sent to the island on two occasions to study the conditions there. 

 Although his report refers especially to the Province of Santa Clara, 

 it is probably true that conditions similar to those he describes obtain 

 everywhere. He found that the entire province is naturally more or 

 less infested by the boll v*'eevil, and that weevils did not spread from 

 cultivated cotton planted with seed obtained in the United States to 

 the wild plants, as at first supposed, but from the latter to the former. 

 The weevils were found to be more numerous on the kidne}" cotton 

 growing wild than on the loose cotton (seminiella). The latter, when 

 growing alone, was usually found to be free from weevils, but likely 

 to be infested when growing in the vicinity of kidney cotton. A large 

 number of wild cotton trees growing in the vicinit}^ of dwellings or 

 growing entirely wild are always infested, and here the weevils are 

 more numerous, but never as numerous as on the cultivated Egyptian 



