BUREAU OF PLANT QUARANTINE 17 
A survey was then started to locate all cotton, either wild or domestic, in the 
southern part of the State. Commercial cotton is not grown south of Alachua 
County, with the exception of a few small experimental plantings in Sumter, 
Pasco, and Hillsborough Counties. Wild cotton was, however, found growing 
along the coast and on keys or islands. On the east coast, the only wild cotton 
found above Miami consisted of four small colonies on a peninsula in Brevard 
County, opposite the town of Grant. On the west coast, wild cotton occurs 
rather generally on both the mainland and adjacent keys from Cape Sable north- 
ward to St. Petersburg. The only wild cotton found above this point was a 
small colony located on a key near Hudson, in Pasco County. 
In connection with this survey, it was found that a considerable percentage of 
the wild cotton was infested. Infestations were discovered along the west coast 
as far northward as Terra Ceia Island, in Manatee County, while on the east 
coast the most northerly infestation was discovered on dooryard cotton plants 
at Lake Worth, in Palm Beach County. 
Field inspection of commercial plantings of cultivated cotton in north-central 
Florida, and the operation of one of the portable gin-trash machines there resulted, 
on September 26, 1932, in the finding of a specimen in trash from the gin at High 
Springs, in Alachua County. Inspectors were immediately concentrated in this 
area, and on October 10, 14 specimens were found in a field 10 miles northwest 
of High Springs, in Columbia County. Another specimen was found in this 
same field the following day. On October 8 a pink boll worm was found with the 
machine in trash from a gin at Lake City, and by field inspection an infestation 
was located in a field 5 miles southwest of Alachua, in Alachua County, on October 
2(3, two specimens being taken. Field and gin-trash inspections were continued 
as long as material was available, but no other specimens were found. 
As a result of these discoveries, a public hearing was held to consider the ad- 
visability of extending the quarantine to cover this area. It developed that sev- 
eral counties east and south of Alachua and Columbia Counties did not have 
ginning facilities, the cotton produced in such counties being ginned in the in- 
fested counties. For this reason Baker, Bradford, Union, and Gilchrist, to- 
gether with Alachua and Columbia Counties, were placed under regulation 
effective October 29, 1932. An inspector was placed at Lake City to supervise 
compliance with the various regulations. 
Not a great deal of cotton was grown in the immediate vicinity of the two in- 
fested fields, and it was therefore possible to clean all fields within a 5-mile radius 
of each known infested field. This was done following the conclusion of cotton 
picking and was completed in December. A total of 169 fields, covering 847*4 
was cleaned in the two counties. The average cost per acre for labor and 
for fuel for burning the material was $2.43. The six gins operated in the two 
countn s were thoroughly cleaned at the end of the season; so also were the three 
oil mills in southern Georgia which had handled seed from the area. 
Most of the cotton had been ginned before the regulated area was established. 
As the gins were not equipped with facilities for sterilizing the seed, a portable 
sterilizer was constructed and sent to the area. The seed belonged to a number 
of different individuals and firms, and while the bulk of it was more or less con- 
centrated, it was necessary to bring the seed to the machine from some 40 different 
locations. An accurate record was kept of the heat of the seed as it was run 
through the machine. Approximately 90,000 pounds of seed were sterilized. 
Germination tests were later made, and they showed that the sterilized seed had 
slightly better germinating qualities that did the unsterilized seed. 
ilt of the survey made in the fall, it was found possible to eliminate the 
wild cotton from southern Florida and the adjacent islands. This work was 
begun early in the calendar year 1933. By the end of June, all the cotton on the 
west coast from Naples northward had been destroyed, thus widening the gap 
between the wild cotton and domestic plantings by fully 150 miles, making the 
total distance aboul 300 miles. The wild cotton on the east coast was also de- 
stroyed, but a considerable amount still remains on the islands in Florida Bay 
and on Cape Sable. None of the cotton on Cape Sable can be reached until the 
ne\t dry Beason. 
During this eradication campaign over 625,000 mature, 816,000 seedling, and 
19,000 sprout plants have been destroyed. By seedling plants is meant those up 
to the si/e of walking canes; mature plants are any plant- Larger than this. Some 
of the mature plants reach a height of 15 to 20 feet and an- :» or C, inches in diam- 
eter, although the majority are not 90 la:. j wild and domestic cotton 
plants are mown in yards as ornamentals, and during the eradication v. 
also been destroyed. After the danger was explained, all the owners, 
except 1 or 2, allowed such plants to be destroyi 
12988—33 3 
