21 



work demonstrated many important points. The principal ones are 

 detailed in Farmers' Bulletin No. 189 of this Department. 



A general realization of the great damage done by the boll weevil now 

 led to the appropriation by Congress of $250,000 for use in enabling 

 the Secretary to meet the emergency caused by the ravages of the 

 insect in 1901. It thus became possible to again increase the number of 

 experimental farms and to pay especial attention to a number of impor- 

 tant matters that could not be investigated previously. As was stated 

 in the preface, the present bulletin is one of the results of this work. 

 The economic results of more immediate importance have been pub- 

 lished in farmers' bulletins and other publications of this Department. 

 Farmers' Bulletin 209 dealt with the possibility of controlling the boll 

 weevil in cotton seed and at gins. Farmers' Bulletin 211 dealt with 

 the value of the use of Paris green in an attempt to control the pest, a 

 matter which was of very great importance in infested regions during 

 the season. Circular No. 56 of the Bureau of Entomology dealt with 

 the most important step in controlling the pest, namely, the early 

 fall destruction of the stalks. Including the seven editions of Farmers' 

 Bulletin No. 189, which incorporated some of the results of the work 

 of the season of 1903, 260,000 copies of these publications were 

 issued. 



DESTBTJCTXVENESS. 



Various estimates of the loss occasioned to cotton planters by the 

 boll weevil have been made. In the nature of the case such estimates 

 must be made upon data that is difficult to obtain and in the collec- 

 tion of which errors must inevitabty occur. There is of course a 

 general tendency to exaggerate agricultural losses, as well as to attrib- 

 ute to a single, factor damage that is the result of a combination of 

 many influences. Before the advent of the boll weevil into Texas 

 unfavorable weather at planting time, summer droughts, and heavy 

 fall rains caused very light crops to be produced. Now, however, the 

 tendency is everywhere to attribute all of the shortage to the weevil. 

 Nevertheless, the pest is undoubtedly the most serious menace that 

 the cotton planters of the South have ever been compelled to face, if 

 not, indeed, the most serious danger that ever threatened any agri- 

 cultural industiy. It was generally considered, until the appearance 

 of the pest in Texas, that there were no apparent difficulties to prevent 

 an increase in cotton production that would keep up to the enlarging 

 demand of the world until at least twice the present normal crop of 

 about 10,500,000 bales should be produced. Now, however, in the 

 opinion of most authorities, the weevil has made this possibility very 

 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 



