98 PLANT-BUGS INJURIOUS TO COTTON BOLLS. 
found that this insect can be controlled satisfactorily by destroying 
by hand whenever incipient colonies are found. From the time 
'that the first bolls set until the cotton is picked a cotton grower should 
keep a close watch for the appearance of the pest and destroy the 
colonies whenever discovered. Weeds of all kinds and particularly 
the Spanish cocklebur should either not be permitted to grow in the 
vicinity of cotton fields or be kept under close surveillance in order 
that they may be promptly destroyed if the necessity arises. 
METHODS OF CONTROL FOR GENERAL APPLICATION. 
FARM PRACTICE AND CULTURAL METHODS. 
In this country a single species of the plant-bugs dealt with in 
the foregoing pages rarely demands special treatment, while the 
combined attack of several, each occurring in moderate numbers, 
is often of vital importance in the determination of profit or loss to 
the cotton grower, and for this reason control methods which are 
generally effective against the various species are of great usefulness. 
The cotton boll weevil is gradually revolutionizing the cotton- 
growing industry in the South, and in addition to making necessary 
certain modifications of the time-honored methods of cotton produc- 
tion, designed to avoid weevil damage as far as possible, has brought 
into prominence the several minor cotton pests which now demand 
intelligent attention. Fortunately the cultural methods for the 
control of the weevil, designed and tested on a broad scale in the 
course of the investigations of the Bureau of Entomology, and after- 
wards administered, and to some extent modified in the light of sub- 
sequent work by the Bureau of Plant Industry, are also, in part, of 
importance in the control of many minor cotton pests, including 
plant-bugs. 
In general, the plant-bugs which attack cotton bolls in the Southern 
States attain their greatest abundance in August and September, 
and consequently the earliest maturing cotton suffers the least. 
The problem of producing an early maturing cotton crop has been 
one of the more important subjects of investigation in connection 
with the study of the control methods for use against the boll weevil. 
This has been considered from an entomological standpoint and put 
into the form of definite practical recommendations by Mr. W. D. 
Hunter, in Farmers' Bulletins a and in circulars dealing with the boll 
weevil. Of more importance in the control of the weevil is the 
destruction in the fall of cotton plants in the field. This practice 
is, of course, particularly effective as a measure against the boll 
weevil, which has no other food plant than cotton, but many plant- 
a Farmers' Bulletins 163, 189, 216, and 344, U. S. Dept. Agriculture. 
