ENTOMOLOGY AND PLANT QUARANTINE 
63 
no effort to get their fields ready for clenninir. and indicated that they were 
going to pkuit cotton in the spring of lli.'>T lu foi',' April 15. For this reason 
the control program has been ahajidoned. :it h.ist for the present. 
The first cotton of the 1937 season was plant (>d on JNIarch 17, and plantings 
were continued after that, with tlie last cotton being planted on May 26. 
Owing to the mild winter, coiisiih^r.ihle stub or volunteer cotton came up, 
and in one instance a 2-acre tiold of stub cotton is being cultivated. By the 
middle of May specimens of the pink boUworm could be found in small squares 
in this stub cotton. This is the situation in Presidio County. In Brewster 
County there is a very small cotton acreage and it is all controlled by one 
man, who is cooperating fully in continuing the program. A thorough field 
cleaning was made on this small icrengo Inst fall, and no cotton was planted 
this spring until after April l.". 'IIk- situ;irion in the two counties should 
thus provide an excellent opportunity for a thorough test of the control pro- 
gram, and especially the value of early or late plajitings. 
WILD COTTON ERADICATION IN SOUTHERN FLORIDA 
The eradication of wild cotton in southern Florida was begun in 1932 to 
eliminate a rather heavy pink boUworm infestation, and thereby remove this 
menace from the main Cotton Belt. The work has been continued each year 
since, but because of climatic conditions the most effective work can be done 
only during the fall, winter, and early spring. This season five small crews 
began work on the west coast in August 1936. The object was to remove 
seedling plants which would have fruited before regular eradication work 
got under way in the fall. Larger crews began work about the first of 
November, and as weather conditions were favorable excellent progress has 
been made. The work was carried on largely with W. P. A. funds ; some 
Bureau funds, however, were used at the beginning of the season. A first 
clean-up was made on some 130 acres, on which 4,014 mature and 12,633 
seedling plants were removed. During the recleanings 2,206 mature, 1,629,975 
seedling, and 21,249 sprout plants were removed. At each recleauing there 
has been a notable decrease in the number of plants destroyed, indicating 
that progress is being made toward final eradication. For example, there was 
a decrease of 94 percent in the number of mature plants removed this 
season, 42 percent for seedlings, and 63 percent for sprout plants, as compared 
vvith last season. This is especially true along the west coast and is of most 
importance because this area is nearest to cultivated cotton. Since the work 
has been under way approximately 10i/4 million wild cotton plants have been 
destroyed. 
During previous seasons wild cotton bolls have been inspected as plants were 
destroyed, so as to obtain information regarding the status of infestation. As 
the work progresses fewer bolls are encountered, and this season, instead 
of inspecting the bolls in the field, they were preserved and sent to Miami 
to be inspected after eradication work was disc(»ntinued. Inspection of this 
material had just gotten under way at the end of June and a few specimens 
of the pink bollworm had been found. These were from bolls collected on 
keys off the coast of Monroe County, and are farthest removed from domestic 
cotton. 
An important phase of wild cotton work was a survey made with an 
autogiro during March and April 1937. The autogiro was loaned to this 
project by the Dutch elm disease project. An area of some 1,900 square miles 
was covered during the survey, and as a result 24 new locations capable of 
sustaining wild cotton were located. These locations were charted on a map, 
and it will be a fairly simple matter for clean- up crews to reach them and 
destroy any cotton that might be present. Of equal importance is the fact 
that many hundred square miles of swamp and everglades have been found 
to be unsuitable for wild cotton growth, and can now be eliminated from 
further consideration in the eradication program. 
THURBERIA WEEVIL CONTROL 
In the area regulated because of the Thurberia weevil in southern Arizona 
approximately 6,000 acres were planted to cotton this season. Of this amount 
some 5,000 acres are of the short-staple variety and 1,000 acres of the Pima 
or long-staple variety. The inspection of gin trash indicated a light infestation 
of the Thurberia weevil in the cultivated cotton, 25 specimens being found. 
