80 
condition of affairs is apparent!}^ attributable to certain definite causes, 
susceptible of explanation. 
It is almost an axiom in economic entomology that greath^ increased 
planting' of a crop, to the practical exclusion of all others, is followed 
by a corresponding increase in insect depredations on the crop thus 
grown. Those who have followed the development of the cotton- 
growing industry in the States west of the Mississippi River during 
the past two or three decades need not be told how extensive this has 
been. Quoting from the Twelfth Census: 
Of the entire crop, 34.05 per cent was grown west of the Mississippi River in 1879; 
38.44 per cent in 1889, and 43.80 per cent in 1899. * * * Of the total increase of 
4,099,831 acres in the decade 1890 to 1900, 3,637,398 acres, or 88.7 per cent, were con- 
tributed by Texas, Indian Territory, and Oklahoma. The increase in Texas was 
3,025,824 acres; in Indian Territory, 371,987 acres; in Oklahoma, 239,569 acres. 
This leaves an increase of only 462,433 acres for all the other States, which was nearly 
reached by the increase of 440,970 acres in Alabama. 
The tide of immigration which in 1850 began to move westward 
from the more eastern cotton States peopled this newer country largely 
with cotton farmers, and until recently but little attention has been 
given to diversified farming, corn and cotton being the principal crops 
grown. As transportation facilities have improved, the tendenc}" has 
been to increase the farm acreage in cotton and to depend more and 
more on the North and West for the food supply. This extension of 
the cotton area and neglect of crop diversification have resulted partly 
from the belief that climate and soil were not adapted to the cultiva- 
tion of those crops grown successfully farther north, but more largely 
on account of labor and economic considerations. Landowners have 
for the most part come to consider cotton as the onh^ crop which might 
be grown on a large scale with reasonable convenience and safetv to 
themselves, and there has thus been developed a condition of finances 
which has necessitated the planting, by tenants and small landowners 
in need of credit, of cotton as collateral for the amounts advanced. 
Plantations -and farms of large size are the rule, and the tenant 
system, therefore, finds its maximum development in the area under 
consideration. This fact, in connection with the large areas in cotton 
as compared with other crops, and the natural fertilitj^ of the soil, pro- 
ducing a rank, succulent plant growth, have been important factors in 
bringing about the present importance of bollworm ravages. 
The cotton crop requires the occupancy of the ground from earl v in 
the spring until late in the fall, the growth of the plant being checked 
only by frost. If the fall be unfavorable, the picking may be greath^ 
delayed, often extending through the winter and well into the following 
spring. Under such circumstances thorough plowing of the ground in 
the fall or winter, with its consequent beneficial influence in destroying 
hibernating pup?e, is not possible, and land is planted to cotton, often 
during several successive years without a thorough breaking up. 
