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temperatures unfavorable to the insect, has failed to reveal any pros- 

 pect that it will ever be much less troublesome than now. There 

 will, nevertheless, be seasons from- time to time in which the damage 

 will be much less than normal. Climatic conditions will undoubtedly 

 cause temporary diminution of the numbers of the pest in certain 

 localities. In Texas these conditions have given rise almost every 

 year to the supposition on the part of the planters that the insects 

 have died out. This was especially the case in the region between 

 San Antonio and Beeville in 1900, and in the vicinitj' of Corpus 

 Christi in 1903. Both these years followed a series of seasons in 

 which there was much less than the normal rainfall ; consequently not 

 only had a great many of the weevils been killed, but the numbers 

 had been diminished by reason of the ver}^ limited extent to which it 

 was possible to raise cotton. Both 1900 and 1903, however, were 

 exceedingly favorable for cotton. Early planting was possible, and 

 there was an abundance of rain throughout the season. The crop 

 was so far advanced by the time the weevils became numerous that a 

 very fair yield was made, although in neither of the cases was any 

 top crop whatever produced. Whenever a series of years of scanty 

 rainfall is followed by one of normal precipitation the weevil will 

 temporarily be comparatively unimportant. The most disastrous 

 seasons will be those in which the rainfall is excessive and planting 

 unavoidably thrown late. 



In this connection it becomes of some interest to speculate as to the 

 possibility that the weevil may eventually be carried outside of the 

 United States and gain a foothold in other cotton-producing countries. 

 The fact that the insect is rather rapidly adapting itself to conditions 

 in the United States that are quite diverse from those of its native home 

 leads to the supposition that it would experience but little difficulty in, 

 adapting itself to climatic conditions wherever cotton may be grown. 

 This probability of the spread of the weevil outside of the United 

 States is increased by the fact that cotton seed for planting purposes 

 is frequently shipped from the United States to various parts of the 

 globe, and that within the last few years various conditions have 

 caused especial interest to be displayed in this matter. There is 

 nothing whatever to prevent weevils that may happen to be sacked 

 with cotton seed from being carried long distances on shipboard. In 

 the semidormant condition in which they hibernate they have often 

 been known to go longer without food than is ordinarily required for 

 a freight shipment from Galveston to Cape Town. Although there 

 are no truly cosmopolitan cotton insects, it seems likely that the boll 

 weevil may eventually be more widely distributed than any other. 



