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as the first weevils appear in the fields. The repellant power of ashes 
oii_the weevils seems to have been partly demonstrated in the case of 
a few plants so treated at San Juan Allen de, Coahuila. 
Turning cattle, hogs, etc., mtQ cotton fields. — I have been informed by 
some planters that cattle will eat all the bolls, whether green or dry, 
that are left on the plants. after picking. Others say that they will not 
touch the dry bolls. It would be well. to turn cattle, sheep, hogs, etc., 
into the fields this winter in localities where it is wholly impossible to 
burn the fields, and where the plants or bolls are still green. But this 
means should, never be resorted to in place of gathering and burning 
the bolls during picking time. 
FALLACIOUS REMEDIES. 
Soaking the seed before planting in copperas water or Paris green 
water will be of no use whatever, as the insects are not to be found in 
the ginned seeds (this has already been pointed out) 5 and none of the 
properties of these substances will enter into the plants from soaking 
the seeds. Neither will the application of sulphur or other substances 
at the roots of. the plants have any effect on the insect. 
Experiments should be carried on along the lines already suggested, 
as these principally are the ones that offer any promise of success. 
Practical deviations from these may suggest themselves to the good 
judgment of planters, but it will be useless to experiment on the lines 
just mentioned, the fallacy of which has been well proven. 
QUARANTINE AND PROHIBITIVE MEASURES AGAINST NEW IMPOR- 
TATIONS. 
Prohibitive measures should be adopted to guard against any new 
importation of the pest from Mexico, if such should threaten. Cotton 
in the seed, and especially cotton bolls, should not be allowed to enter 
our territory from Mexico. There is no probability of this happening, 
as there are sufficient ginning facilities in Mexico, and a much better 
market there. It must be remembered that Mexico consumes all the 
cotton she produces and more. None has ever been shipped from 
Mexico into the United States. The only part of the plant that has 
been shipped from Mexico into our territory is the ginned seed. 
That no cotton is raised on the American side anywhere in the neigh- 
borhood of Eagle Pass and Laredo is to be considered a most fortunate 
circumstance. This condition of things should be maintained as long 
as possible. The weevil exists in great numbers only 30 miles south of 
Eagle Pass, and may at any time reach the cotton fields of Ciudad 
Porfirio Diaz, which is on the Rio Grande, opposite Eagle Pass. 
I was informed that for about 50 miles to the south of Alice and San 
Diego, and then for about 50 miles to the north of Brownsville, there is 
more or less cotton raised. This leaves about 50 or 60 miles of country 
where none is grown, with the exception of the isolated district at La 
Parra. 
