57 



It must not be inferred that we believe weevils have no sense by 

 which to locate their food supply, but it is apparent, both from these 

 observations and from observations made in the field, that the move- 

 ment of the weevils is indefinite, and the probability is that their find- 

 ing cotton is more the result of accident than of evident intention. 

 Since it has been found that weevils may live for a number of days 

 after emerging from hibernation without food, they have considerable 

 opportunit}^ to move about and stand a considerable chance of finding 

 food if it exists in the immediate localit3^ 



DANGER FROM ALLOWING SEPPA TO GROW. 



In this connection attention should be called to the serious danger 

 of allowing seppa to grow. It might appear that in localities where 

 there is suflScient seppa to give a fair stand, there would be the decided 

 advantage from the earliness of this growth in attempting to make a 

 crop from these plants. Such, however, is not the case, as has been 

 conclusively shown b}^ the experience in south Texas during 1904. 

 Winter conditions favorable to the survival of the cotton roots favor 

 also the successful hibernation of man}^ weevils, and large numbers 

 of these attacking the crop in the spring are certainly fatal to 

 the production of even a fair crop. The conditions and practices 

 which result in seppa growth are those most favorable to the Aveevil. 

 Southern Texas, where seppa is most common, is the very portion of 

 the State which can profit most easily and most certainly by adopting 

 the fall destruction of the stalks, and the subsequent plowing, which 

 will not only prevent seppa growth, but will also insure the destruc- 

 tion of a vast majority of the weevils. By allowing seppa to grow in 

 a field of planted cotton, the weevils are supplied with the most advan- 

 tageous conditions for getting a start over the planted crop. It will 

 frequently happen that the seppa plants are from four to six weeks in 

 advance of the planted cotton. Under such conditions, as was dem- 

 onstrated at Victoria in 1904, a complete first generation of weevils 

 may develop on the seppa, thus multiplying greatly the number of 

 weevils which are ready to attack the main crop by the time squares 

 begin to form thereon. The development of this largely increased 

 number of weevils might easily have been prevented by simply 

 destroying all seppa plants, and the seppa growth can be more easily 

 and more surely prevented by destroying stalks in the fall and giving 

 the ground a thorough plowing at that time than by any measures 

 that may be adopted in the following spring. If it should be argued 

 that seppa furnished ideal trap rows, we would say that extensive 

 observations have shown that they constitute a source of decided dan- 

 ger rather than of benefit, even if preserved for the purpose of trap- 

 ping hibernated weevils. The proportion of weevils escaping destruc- 

 tion upon such trap plants would insure the survival of a larger 

 number of weevils per acre than could possibly have survived under 



