COTTON IN WEEVIL-CONTROL EXPERIMENTS 31 
of about 6 inches. Guard plats numbered 1 and 10 were thinned to 
one plant per hill 12 inches apart. 
DAMAGE BY OVERWINTERED WEEVILS 
While cotton had been grown on an adjoining field in 1922, early 
destruction of stalks and unfavorable conditions for hibernation 
in the vicinity of the field undoubtedly afforded some protection to 
the 1923 planting. Although careful search was made no evidence 
of weevil infestation was found until June 14, when punctured 
squares were seen at three places in the field. Records made on 
June 20 showed that about 1 per cent of the squares had been damaged 
by weevils. 
STRIPPING OF FLORAL BUDS 
The entire field was stripped of squares and poison applied on 
June 20. The mode of procedure in the removal of squares was 
essentially the same as that used at San Antonio, described on pages 
6 and7. The laborers were instructed to remove all squares whose 
bracts were one-half inch or more long, a size that is attained in 
about 10 days after the young buds are large enough to be distin- 
guished readily. There were many squares of this size or larger in 
the April 5 and April 16 plantings, but only a few in the April 25 and 
May 4 plantings that were large enough to be removed. Counts 
were made of the total number of squares removed from representa- 
tive rows of each plat, and the average number of squares removed 
per plant was found to be as follows: First planting, 4.5; second 3.8; 
third, 1.6; fourth, 1.1. During the removal of the squares 78 weevils 
were captured. 
Field observations indicated that reinfestation from later emerging 
weevils would have occurred if the squares had been removed earlier 
than June 20 during 1923. The planting made on April 25 was at 
the proper stage for stripping on June 20. Plantings made after 
May 1 could normally be poisoned successfully without stripping, 
as the weevil emergence was practically complete before the squares 
were large enough to harbor larve. 
Calcium arsenate in dust form was applied to the plants on June 
21 with ahand gun. MHeavy rains washed the poison from the plants 
during the afternoon of that day. As poison should remain on the 
plants a minimum of 48 hours to be dgecinres a second application 
was made on June 22, which remained on the plants until June 27. 
No further measures were taken to control the weevil during the 
remainder of the season. 
LATE-SEASON WEEVIL DAMAGE 
Examinations were made frequently in this test for indications of 
weevil infestation following the removal of squares and poisoning. 
On July 12 two small infested spots were found, but infestation re- 
mained very slight and on July 27 was only about 3 per cent. There 
Was no appreciable difference in the infestation of the different 
plantings. Migration of weevils from other fields began early in 
August, and by August 13 the experimental field was heavily infested. 
No attempt was made to control migratory weevils, as adverse 
weather conditions and defoliation of the plants by leafworms pre- 
vented the setting of bolls on any of the plantings after July 31. 
