WOEK OF LOUISIANA CROP PEST COMMISSION. 127 



possible the different conditions which obtain upon the average Louis- 

 iana plantation. 



The object of the experiment is, of course, to determine the per 

 cent of weevils which survive under different conditions for hiber- 

 nation and when forced to subsist for varying intervals without food 

 before entering hibernating quarters in the fall. In addition to this 

 we expect to determine next spring the date and temperature at 

 which the first hibernating adults emerge from winter quarters, the 

 time at which the bulk of hibernated weevils emerge, and the date 

 at which the last individuals leave hibernation. An accurate knowl- 

 edge of all the points involved is of the utmost importance in securing 

 the maximum results in employing the cultural remedy. 



THE INDIRECT METHOD OF REDUCING DAMAGE BY THE BOLL WEEVIL. 



That the boll weevil has no food plant other than cotton has become 

 almost an axiom. The farmer who produces crops other than cotton 

 has nothing to fear from boll-weevil ravages, but unfortunately he 

 finds other insect enemies threatening his success regardless of what 

 crops he may undertake to substitute for cotton. The crop-pest com- 

 mission does not overlook the fact that we are to continue in the 

 future, as in the past, to produce cotton, but under the present labor 

 and credit systems which prevail in Louisiana and adjacent States 

 the profitable production of cotton, upon as large a scale as formerly, 

 with the weevil present, will be impossible, and the growing of cotton 

 to the practical exclusion of other crops must be succeeded by a 

 diversified system of agriculture. By the control of insects seriously 

 injurious to crops other than cotton and by devising and disseminat- 

 ing information concerning methods of successfully combating them, 

 the profits derived from producing such crops are materially in- 

 creased and the advent of a properly diversified system of farming is 

 accordingly hastened. 



In this connection it is sufficient to direct attention to the fact that 

 as the territory infested by the boll weevil increases and as the present 

 infested area approaches a state of maximum infestation, the warfare 

 against other insects will become of much greater moment to the 

 agriculture of the State than it is at present. 



Mr. Marlatt, referring to the recommendation made in some of the 

 papers for the encouragement of the cotton leaf -worm as a means of 

 controlling the boll weevil, remarked that it should not be forgotten 

 that the leaf-worm itself has proven in the past a very serious cotton 

 pest, and that in the early years of its presence, before means of con- 

 trol were discovered or generally practiced, it caused a loss in single 



