al 
and difficulty of the proposed plan can only be appreciated in con- 
nection with a knowledge of the enormous territory affected and the 
peculiar farming conditions which are there in vogue. According 
to the Twelfth Census the cotton interests of Texas are approximately 
equal to one-fourth of those of all cotton States combined, covering in 
1899 6,960,367 acres. It has been determined by the investigations 
of the Bureau of Entomology that probably the most tnportant 
single way in which the wholesale destruction of the weevil may be 
obtained is by the early destruction of the cotton plants in the fall 
before the weevils are ready to go into hibernation quarters. The 
difficulty of enforcing destruction of fields of cotton over so wide a 
territory and at a time when the prospects for continued yield are 
good need not be commented upon before an audience many indi- 
viduals of which have had experience in the execution of laws 
requiring the destruction of a greater or less number of comparatively 
worthless infested fruit and other plants. 
The present status of our knowledge concerning our destructive 
insects and the efficiency of present methods of control is a subject 
that might well be enlarged upon cid time permit. Undoubtedly the 
three dominant entomological events of the past few years have been 
the establishment of the San Jose scale in the East, the invasion of 
Texas by the cotton boll weevil, and the widespread interest aroused 
in mosquitoes following the discovery of the role which these insects 
play in the transmission of malarial and yellow fever. 
Since about 1894 the San Jose scale has occupied the attention of 
many of our Eastern entomologists to the practical exclusion of 
everything else. The matter of control of the insect in nurseries 
was early solved by a system of inspection and fumigation. Its con- 
trol in orchards has until recently continued to be a most perplexing 
problem. The unsatisfactory results following the early experiments 
with the lime, sulphur, and salt wash practically eliminated this 
insecticide from consideration among possible remedies. Attention 
was therefore directed to ether means of control. Kerosene and 
crude petroleum, pure and in mechanical mixture with water and in 
soap emulsions of varying strengths, various soap washes, hydro- 
cyanic-acid gas, parasitic fungi, and, in fact, almost the whole 
gamut of insecticides was run through only to discover, after some 
years, that the lime, sulphur, and salt wash was, after all, a most 
satisfactory treatment. The establishment of this fact came, so to 
speak, in the nick of time. While there is abundant testimony as 
to the safeness and efficiency of the mineral oils in the control of this 
insect on such fruit trees as the peach and plum, yet the trouble hes 
in the danger following the injudicious applications which persons 
inexperienced in such work are likely to make. The many instances 
of severe and often fatal injury are calculated to bring the recom- 
