ID 



doubtful, although the first fears entertained in many localities that 

 the cultivation of cotton would have to be abandoned have generally 

 been given up. An especially unfavorable feature of the problem is 

 in the fact that the weevil reached Texas at what would have been, 

 from other considerations, the most critical time in the history of the 

 production of the staple in the State. The natural fertility of the 

 cotton lands had been so great that planters had neglected completely 

 such matters as seed selection, varieties, fertilizers, and rotation, that 

 must eventually receive consideration in anj^ cotton-producing coun- 

 try. In general, the only seed used was from the crop of the preced- 

 ing year, unselected and of absolutely unknown variety, and the use 

 of fertilizers had not been practiced at all. Although it is by no 

 means true that the fertility of the soil had been exhausted, neverthe- 

 less, on many of the older plantations in Texas the continuous plant- 

 ing of cotton with a run-down condition of the seed combined to make 

 a change necessary in order to continue the industry profitably. 



A careful examination of the statistics, to which more complete ref- 

 erence is made in Farmers' Bulletin No. 189, has indicated that the 

 pest causes a reduction in production for a few } 7 ears after its advent 

 of about 50 per cent, but at the same time it is evident that most 

 planters within a few years are able to adopt the changes in the sys- 

 tem of cultivating this staple that are made necessary by the weevil, 

 so that the damage after a short time does not compare with that at 

 the beginning. Upon the foregoing basis, during the season of 1903 

 the Aveevil caused Texas cotton planters a loss of about $15,000,000, 

 and this estimate agrees rather well with estimates made in other 

 ways ~by the more conservative cotton statisticians. A similar esti- 

 mate made in 1902 led to the conclusion that the damage amounted 

 to about $10,000,000. It consequently appears that during the years 

 the pest has been in Texas the aggregate damage would reach at least 

 $50,000,000. Many conditions of climate and plantation practice in 

 the eastern portion of the cotton belt indicate that the weevil prob- 

 lem will eventually be as serious east of the Mississippi as it now is 

 in Texas. According to the estimates of Mr. Richard H. Edmunds, 

 the editor of Manufacturers' Record, the normal cotton crop of the 

 United States represents a value of $500,000,000, the extreme ulti- 

 mate damage that the pest might accomplish over the entire belt 

 would be in the neighborhood of $250,000,000 annually, provided none 

 of the means of avoiding damage that are now coming into common 

 use in Texas were adopted. In spite of the general serious outlook, 

 however, it must be stated that fears of the damage the weevil ma}^ 

 do are very often much exaggerated, especially in newly invaded 

 regions. It is not at all necessary to abandon cotton. The work of the 

 Division of Entomology for several seasons has demonstrated that a 

 crop can be grown profitably in spite of the boll weevil, and this expe- 

 rience is duplicated by many planters in Texas, 



