February, ’20] SCHOOL: PINK BOLLWORM ERADICATION WORK 
39 
As a primary safeguard the legislature created a zone known by 
some as a “safety zone” and termed by others a “buffer zone,” which 
consists of a tier of counties along the Rio Grande River, and provides 
for this safety strip of land in which it becomes necessary for the com¬ 
missioner of agriculture to use special precautions in making inspec¬ 
tions and surveys of cotton fields. Sections of the act following that 
portion which provides for the above zone makes it possible, under 
certain conditions, to safeguard the shipments of cotton products, and 
if necessary, prohibit the absolute growing of cotton. The procedure 
in establishing a non-cotton zone in this tier of counties consists mainly 
of the inspection of cotton fields in Mexico by federal men, and if pink 
bollworms are found within twenty-five miles of the Texas border such 
report, when received at Washington, D. C., is reported to the gov¬ 
ernor of our state by the secretary of agriculture, after which it be¬ 
comes necessary for the commissioner of agriculture of Texas to verify 
the infestation. After this has been done and the report has been 
submitted to the governor of the state, he at once issues a proclama¬ 
tion creating a non-cotton zone consisting of such territory as may 
be deemed necessary to assure the prevention of the introduction of 
the pink bollworm into the state of Texas. It is under this section of 
the act that zone 4, consisting of the counties of Yal Verde, Kinney 
and Maverick, has become' a non-cotton zone since the spring of 1918 
on account of the discovery of the pink bollworm at San Carlos, Mexico, 
about fourteen miles from the Rio Grande River, by federal officials in 
the fall of 1917, and verified by state officials in February of 1918. 
The present existence of the pink bollworm at San Carlos makes it 
necessary for the continuance of non-cotton zone No. 4. 
Further steps are provided in the act for the commissioner of agri¬ 
culture to prevent the shipping of cotton or cotton products from 
border zones, or to properly safeguard such shipments by fumigation 
before they are shipped. 
The first steps necessary in the case of discovery of the pink boll¬ 
worm within the state outside of the zone provided for in Section 1 
are for the commissioner of agriculture, upon receipt of a sworn affi¬ 
davit from an inspector to the effect that the worms have been found, 
to certify such fact to the governor, who then proclaims a special zone 
or quarantine district to such an extent as may be determined sufficient 
to prevent the spread of the pink bollworm, after which it is unlawful 
for any grower or any person to ship cotton products of any kind with¬ 
out special permission from the commissioner of agriculture. It is 
further provided that if in the judgment of the commissioner of agri¬ 
culture the danger is of such nature that the cotton must be destroyed, 
such fact is also certified to the governor, who then proclaims such 
