22 



in the fact that the weevil reached Texas at what would have been, 

 from other considerations, the most critical time in the history of the 

 production of the staple in the State. The natural fertility of the 

 cotton lands had been so great that planters had neglected completely 

 such matters as seed selection, varieties, fertilizers, and rotation, that 

 must eventually receive consideration in any cotton-producing country. 

 In general, the only seed used was from the crop of the preceding 

 year, unselected and of absolutely unknown variet}^, and the use of 

 fertilizers had not been practiced at all. Although it is by no means 

 true that the fertilit}^ of the soil had been exhausted, nevertheless, on 

 many of the older plantations in Texas, the continuous planting of 

 cotton with a run-down condition of the seed combined to make a 

 change necessary in order to continue the industr}-^ profitabl3\ 



A careful examination of the statistics, to which more complete ref- 

 erence is made in Farmers' Bulletin No. 189, has indicated that the 

 pest causes a reduction in production for a few years after* its advent 

 of about 50 per cent, but at the same time it is evident that most 

 planters within a few j^ears are able to adopt the changes in the sys- 

 tem of cultivating this staple that are made necessary by the weevil, 

 so that the damage after a short time does not compare with that at 

 the beginning. Upon the foregoing basis, during the season of 1903 

 the weevil caused Texas cotton planters a loss of about $15,000,000, 

 and this estimate agrees rather well with estimates made in other 

 ways b}^ the more conservative cotton statisticians. A similar esti- 

 mate made in 1902 led to the conclusion that the damage amounted 

 to about ^10,000,000. It consequently appears that during the years 

 the pest has been in Texas the aggregate damage would reach at least 

 $50,000,000. Many conditions of climate and plantation practice in 

 the eastern portion of the cotton belt indicate that the weevil problem 

 will eventually be as serious east of the Mississippi as it now is in 

 Texas. According to the estimates of Mr. Richard H. Edmunds, the 

 editor of Manufacturers' Record, the normal cotton crop of the United 

 States represents a value of $500,000,000; the extreme ultimate dam- 

 age that the pest might accomplish over the entire belt would be in the 

 neighVjorhood of $250,000,000 annuall}^, provided none of the means 

 of avoiding damage that are now coming into common use in Texas 

 were adopted. In spite of the general serious outlook, however, it 

 must be stated that fears of the damage the weevil may do are very 

 often much exaggerated, especially in newl}^ invaded regions. It is 

 not at all necessary to abandon cotton. The work of the Bureau of 

 Entomology for several seasons has demonstrated that a crop can be 

 grown profitably in spite of the boll weevil, and this experience is 

 duplicated by man}' planters in Texas. 



During the season of 1901 the usual increase in infested territory 

 occurred. About 15,000 square miles, representing approximately an 



