20G 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



DISINFECTION OF EGYPTIAN COTTON TO EXCLUDE THE PINK BOLEWORM 



The worst of all cotton pests is the pink bollworm, the larva of a minute moth. The 

 larvae feed in the bolls and destroy the forming lint. This pest originated in India and 

 readied Egypt about 15 years ago with some importations of cotton, and has since been 

 distributed with Egyptian cotton seed to practically every cotton-producing country of the 

 world. It reached Texas via Mexico in 1916, and since that time Congress has appropriated 

 upward of $2,500,000 to be used in an effort to exterminate this pest. 



This illustration shows the method of disinfecting Egyptian cotton. The entire row of 

 cotton bales is carried at one time into a huge steel cylinder, shown at the end of the picture, 

 by means of a movable platform. The cylinder then is hermetically closed and the air 

 exhausted, creating a vacuum. The poisonous cyanide gas is then allowed to enter the 

 cylinder, and the vacuum insures penetration of this gas to the very center of the bale, 

 destroying all insects. This is the largest fumigating plant in the world, and each cylinder 

 has a capacity of over 100 bales of cotton at one time. 



A SPECIAE SENSE MUST BE DEVEEOPED BY THE PLANT INSPECTOR 



This_ photograph illustrates an effort to bring alligator pears into the United States from 

 Mexico imbedded in partly baked loaves of bread, in violation of a Federal embargo on 

 account of pests. 



