52 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 1 
mitted establishment of a heavy local infestation. Prom these heavy, 
localized infestations wind currents probably carried moths of the 
insect for Long distances, thereby establishing infestations in counties 
that have never before been invaded. 
Failure to apply the measures that would have kept the pink boll- 
worm under control are attributable to a variety of circumstfl 
Weather condition- in some instances were unfavorable for meeting 
the State-imposed planting dates and extensions of planting dates 
were granted. Maturing cotton in fields adjoining this late planted 
cotton furnished a reservoir of pink bollworms to heavily infest the 
overlapping crop. Arid field conditions preceding crop maturity 
combined with favorable temperatures and wind- then permitted the 
moth of t he pink bollworm to he wind-borne and thus dispersed north- 
ward and eastward to uninfested counties. 
When this modi 1 of dispersal was coupled with later extensions of 
State-imposed dates for cotton stalk and debris destruction, pink 
bollworms in heavy concent rat ion- went into winter hibernation right 
in the fields. For example. 50,000 farmers and some 3 million acn 
cotton were involved in the 1951 pink bollworm cultural control pro- 
gram in Texas and Louisiana. More than a million acre- of the 
Texas plantings were standing beyond the stalk destruction dates. 
Such extensive failures to plow under the stalls resulted in delayed 
crop-. Enormous numbers of pink bollworms overwintered in these 
late-maturing bolls. There was a lower than normal mortality of 
overwintering worms in south Texas, with a consequent abnormally 
high potential for early 1952 crop infestation. 
In the Eagle Pass, Tex., area, for example, late planted fields in 1951 
were very heavily infested. One farmer is reported to have picked 
only 18 bales of cotton from 162 acre-. Another farmer cut and 
plowed several fields on his farm when he found he had nearly a hale 
pci- acre of heavily infested green bolls. Field inspection reports 
from this area late in September 1951 showed that 67 percent of the 
holls examined were infested, with an average of nearly four pink 
bollworms each. At this same time, seven fields were found to be 100 
percent infested, some bolls containing as many a- I s to 20 worms. 
pection of surf ace debris through the winter of L951 52 and into 
April confirmed the presence of heavy infestation in all south Texas 
counties as far north as San Antonio. Survival in these counties ran 
well over 5< I percent . About 25 percent survival was found in the west 
Texas Counties of Howard, Martin, and Midland. Everywhere in- 
spections have been made in Texas thus far in L952 increased infesta- 
tion has b en found. In L951, for example, 17,000 bolls from surface 
debris collected in IV Texas counties yielded some L,900 worms. In- 
spections in L952 of 52,000 -cell bolls from 55 Texas counties showed 
worms. Bloom inspection of the 1952 Texas crop gave 
an early indication of the pink bollworm infestation that might be 
expected a threefold i<> fourfold increase in infestation over L951 was 
apparent in many counties. Examination of green bolls of the L952 
crop made by the end of the fiscal year showed a heavy infestation of 
pink- bollworms in T«> out of 85 fields examined in four Rio Grande 
Valley count ies. 
In contrast to the heavy buildup <»f infestation in Texas the situa- 
lion iii Louisiana — where a noncotton /one was imposed in infested 
