HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 31 
Mr. Burreson. As a matter of fact, it has been conclusively demon- 
strated that it will starve before it will cat anything but cotton. 
Mr. Howarp. You are quite right. 
A question was asked in regard to the existence of the insect in 
Mexico. In certain parts of Mexico it has caused the utter abandon- 
ment of the culture of cotton. When, however, after a lapse of years, 
they began to cultivate cotton again, the weevil again appeared, and 
they had to abandon it again. That would not occur in Texas. If 
cotton were abandoned in Texas, the probability is these insects would 
starve out and there would not be a new introduction except from 
Mexico; but in Mexico the cotton grows wild, and the result is that the 
insect is always there. 
Mr. Bowie. Let me ask you there, on that point, this question. 
Suppose this year a field is attacked with the boll weevil and next year 
it is planted in corn or in hay, and there are two or three crops of corn 
or hay. Then could cotton be safely planted the third or fourth year? 
Mr. Howanp. It depends on the proximity of other cotton very 
ae eek The weevil will live for many months without food. It 
will continue. to live until it gets an opportunity to live on cotton: 
It might possibly go through a whole year in that way; but, you 
see, the weevil flies. It has spread every year since its introduc- 
tion to Texas to the north and east at the rate of from 50 to 75 miles 
a year. Its principal spread is in the month of October, when it has 
become very numerous through the constant reproduction in geomet- 
rical increase. At that time of the year there is a prevailing southerly 
breeze, and it is thus spread from 50 to 75 miles a year. 
Mr. Lams. How does it travel? 
Mr. Howarp. It travels by flight from one field to another. It is 
carried in the cotton to the gins, and it is carried in many ways from 
the places of hibernation. It might crawl into a freight car which is 
sidetracked alongside a cotton field. That freight car might the next 
year be in Georgia and alongside a cotton field; in which case the 
insect would be introduced in that way. 
Mr. Haucen. If a cotton field is abandoned for a year, the weevil is 
practically starved out, is it not? 
Mr. Howarp. I think so. ‘That is practically what 1 advised when 
it was restricted to a very small area in southeastern Texas, but the 
State did not see it in that way, and they would not even go to the point 
of cutting down the cotton in October, which would have destroyed 
the great majority of them. They could not afford the slight money 
loss. ; 
As I say, we have tried the application of insecticides. We have 
found that wanting. We have tried the use of machinery. We 
have found that wanting up to date. Some machine may yet be found 
which will have some practical effect. 
The Cuarrman. A machine along what line? 
Mr. Howarp. A machine for taking up the square. The insect first 
attacks the square. The square, when it is attacked, falls to the ground, 
and in the square on the ground the weevil still develops if the ground 
is shaded. They have invented a machine for drawing these squares 
up by suction. Other machines have been invented for crushing them, 
and so on. Then we have tried the introduction of natural enemies. 
That, so far, has not succeeded, but we have, through the intimate 
knowledge of the natural history of the insect, developed this system 
of culture changes, which has, in a measure, saved the situation. 
