HAIKY STALKS AND LEAF STEMS. 25 



imported, however, for weaving in the native looms. The industry 

 has greatly declined in the last century, perhaps because chickens 

 have been generally substituted for turkeys, which were formerly the 

 only domestic fowl possessed by the Indians. 



All attempts at establishing field cultures of cotton in this region 

 have failed. The local public, which does not take the weevil factor 

 into consideration, is firmly persuaded that cotton will not bear ex- 

 cept in the heavy, rich soil of the dooryards of the Indian villages. 



HAIRY STALKS AND LEAF STEMS. 



The weevil on foot is a rather slow-moving, clumsy insect, and it 

 has been ascertained in the course of the investigations conducted by 

 Messrs. Hunter and Hinds that its movements on the plants are to a 

 great extent impeded by hairy stalks and leaf stems. The smooth 

 Egyptian and Sea. Island varieties were found to be more susceptible 

 to weevil injuries than the hairy Upland sorts. The Kekchi cotton 

 is still more hairy, however, than the United States varieties, and 

 gains an added advantage from this fact." The longer it takes the 

 weevils to climb from one bud to another the greater are the chances 

 of their being caught b}^ the keleps. The latter insects, owing to 

 their much longer legs and the claws with which their feet are armed, 

 are not only able to travel readily over the hairs, but find them of 

 definite assistance. On smooth surfaces they are much less adroit 

 in catching and stinging the boll weevils. In our experiments, too, 

 they seemed to prefer the hairy Upland cottons to the smooth Sea 

 Island varieties. 



The difference between the two insects in this respect may also be 

 illustrated by the fact that the keleps are unable to ascend a perpen- 

 dicular surface of clean glass, a feat which the weevils accomplish 

 without difficulty. 



That the Guatemalan cotton was more attractive to the keleps than 

 the United States Upland and Sea Island varieties planted in ad- 

 jacent rows seems to be indicated by a census of our plot experiment, 

 taken April 19 by Mr. Argyle McLachlan. Kelep nests were 

 found at the bases of 41 per cent of the plants of the other varieties, 



a Though distinctly hairier than our ordinary Upland varieties, the Kekchi 

 cotton is exceeded in this respect by two other Guatemalan types, as well shown 

 in a field test at Lanham, Md. The Pachon cotton obtained by Mr. William R. 

 Maxon in the Retalhuleu district of western Guatemala is distinctly more 

 hairy than the Kekchi variety, though it seems to be lacking in other weevil- 

 resisting features. The involucral bracts are not closed any more than in the 

 Sea Island or Egyptian types. The most hairy cotton of all is the Rabinal 

 variety, at least in the form it has taken at Lanham. The plants are very much 

 more robust in every respect than at home in Guatemala, and the hairy covering 

 shares in this increased vigor. 



