14 
era in the evolution of methods of insect control. Such a simple 
expedient as delaying the time of planting wheat so as to avoid 
injury from the fall swarm of the Hessian fly has been the means of 
saving millions of dollars to the wheat grewers in the territory 
infested with this insect. The important work on this species by 
Doctor Hopkins permits the determination of the normal time of 
‘appearance of the fall brood for any latitude or altitude. Professor 
Webster, by observations extending over many years, has been able to 
chart the State of Ohio into belts indicating the safe periods for the 
planting of this crop. 
The recognition of the value of late fall or winter plowing, of rota- 
tion of crops, of certain classes of fertilizers, and of better cultivation 
in the control of noxious species will make this class of work very 
important in the future. During the last few years the importance 
of improved cultural methods has been demonstrated on a large scale 
in the control of two serious pests of the cotton plant, namely, the 
boil weevil and the bollworm. 
In the case of the cotton boll weevil its advent in the cotton fields 
of Texas coincided with conditions of cotton culture which greatly 
ageravated its destructiveness. The natural fertility of the land 
and the tenant system largely in vogue had brought about an indiffer- 
ence to those economical methods of farming found necessary in older 
sections, where the fertility of the land is less and the difficulty of 
producing profitable crops is greater. Indifferent preparation and 
cultivation of the land, the use of unselected and more or less run- 
down seed—often from the public ginneries and of absolutely un- 
known variety—had placed the cotton-growing industry in a condi- 
tion to be seriously threatened by the introduction of any inimical 
factor. The remedial measures now found necessary are along the line 
of better farming, and we have the not unusual case of entomologists 
showing the farmer how to farm. The success with which this work 
has been carried out must in part be attributed to the readiness of 
landowners to adopt methods which they recognized as practicable 
and desirable in themselves, to say nothing of their value in circum- 
venting weevil injury. In a recent communication from Mr. W. D. 
Hunter, in charge of the cotton boll weevil investigations of the 
Bureau of Entomology, he mentions certain phases of his work which 
are pertinent here as bearing on the methods and extent of this cul- 
tural work as applied to what is one of our most important present 
day insect problems. He writes as follows: 
During the several years that the Bureau of Entomology of the United States 
Department of Agriculture has carried on investigations of the Mexican cotton 
boll weevil it has been possible to perfect a system of avoiding damage by the 
pest. This system, founded upon a careful study of all the habits of the insect, 
is now generally known as the “cultural system.” Its basis is in the fact 
