64 BULLETIN NO. 4, DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



its tributaries, and especially of those who have run on the river for a 

 number of years. \ 



We left Para December 19, and on the 22d arrived at Maranhao. At 

 this place the delay of the steamer was too short to allow of any iuves- 

 tigations, however short, in the field. I had time though, to call upon his 

 Excellency, the President of the Province of Maranhao, and to solicit his 

 support in carrying on the investigations intrusted to me. He cheer, 

 fully promised to aid me in every way in his power, and furnished me 

 with the names of such planters in the interior as would be able to 

 answer any inquiries in regard to the diseases common to cotton and 

 cane, and the methods of cultivation employed in this country. I am 

 indebted also to Sur. Themistocles Aranha, the editor of the Paiz, the 

 leading newspaper of the Province of Maranhao, for valuable historical 

 information upon the subject of cotton culture in this part of Brazil. 



On the 27th of December we landed at Pernambuco. My original 

 instructions had been to proceed to Bahfci to carry on my investigations,, 

 but sufficient liberty of action was allowed me to enable me to stop at 

 some other point, should I find it better adapted to the purposes of my 

 work. 



Taking into consideration the importance of the province of Pernam- 

 buco as a cotton-growing district, as compared with the province of 

 Bahia, the nearness of the cotton district to the coast, and its conse- 

 quent accessibility, its geographical position in relation to the southern 

 United States, and its proximity to the Bahia district, I concluded that 

 it would be best for us to go into the interior from this place. 



Before leaving Washington, we had, at your request, been furnished 

 letters from his Excellency the Brazilian Minister at Washington, Snr. 

 Lopes Xetto, to various officials in Brazil. One of these letters was 

 directed to the President of the Province of Pernambuco. On the day 

 following our landing, I called upon his Excellency the President. He 

 gave me a set of the reports of the Presidents for several years previous, 

 from which I could collect information concerning the production of 

 cotton and cane, and directed that letters should be given us to the 

 local authorities in the places we might visit in the cotton-growing dis- 

 trict. I called also upon Dr. Portella, for many years the president 

 of the Pernambuco Society of Agriculture, to obtain information in 

 regard to the localities most favorable for our work, and to learn also 

 what had been done by the Society or by the Government in the way of 

 investigating insects and diseases common to cane and to cotton in this 

 province. He gave me some publications made by the Society, and 

 presented me to other gentlemen who gave me valuable information in 

 regard to insect pests, cotton culture, &c. 



The cotton region, through this part of Brazil, lies just inland from 

 the cane-growing lands, which form a belt along the coast from 35 to 50 

 miles wide. Toward the south of the province Garanhuns is the center 

 of the cotton-prod ucing area. Further inland the production is smaller, 



