COTTON INSECT INVESTIGATIONS 
INVESTIGATIONS OF INSECTS AFFECTING THE HEALTH OF MAN AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS 
J, le Wedd, Associate Entomologist, Acting in Charge 
In a letter dated May 20, B, R. Coad writes.from Tallulah, La,, as 
follows: 
_ "Quite a little of this country is beginning to come out of the over- 
flow now and, of course, in our own work, we are very busy salvaging things 
and getting organized. Evidently our air field will be under water for a 
long time yet, probably something over a month, but the water has fallen 
enough so that we are able to start moving out our dusting machinery and simi-— 
lar articles, and we are moving this into town as fast as we cane Al] elece J 
trical equipment is, of course, ruined but the remainder of the machinery has | 
not rusted much, and by cleaning and greasing this as fast as it is taken out | 
of the water we hope to be able to salvage most of it. Delicate parts will 4 
also be ruined, but these can be replaced at comparatively little cost, I 
have made one trip above Tallulah and another one to the south of here, cover- ™ 
ing the areas which were not overflowed, owing to protection from small pri- 
vate levees, and think that between the two territories we,can soon get 
started on our most important research work, where it is essential to have 
fields where there was no overflow water, This is particularly true in the 
case of the hopper, Judging from present prospects, we will probably locate 
a temporary insectary about Alsatia or Transylvania, and move some of our 
equipment up there for starting the earliest biological work, we have one 
deep strdtch of water between here and there which will probably last until 
well into the Summer, but can cross this by boat, and I have secured the use 
of a motor car and a couple of flats which we use on the railroad to go from 
the edge of the water to our place of work, - all experiments south of Tallulah 
will have to be reached by boat for a long time, as the highway there is under 
10 feet of water in some places yet, | 
"With reference to high-water insects, every preparation is being 
made to meet an outbreak of cutworms, grass worms, leaf worms, and then an 
anvasion of boll weevils in Auguste The old theory was that immature stages 
of cutiro ris in the ground were not injured by overflow, whereas their natural 
enemies were largely destroyed, ‘Then when the water subsided, these worms 
came out with a large appetite and found very little vegetation except for 
the small amount of sprouted seed which had been planted since the overflow. 
Personally this theory never seemed to quite completely cover the situation, ,* 
I can not believe that it would’ account for’ the enormous number of worms whi 
appear in the first generation within a week to two weeks after the water sub 
Sides, It seews to me that an increase due to destroying the balance between 
host and parasite should require at least a generation to produce such a 
marked effect. Doctor Folsom is trying to get something definite on this sub 
ject this season," 
