REPORT OF THE FEDERAL HORTICULTURAL BOARD.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,

FEDERAL HORTICULTURAL BOARD, Washington, D. C., September 30, 1918.

SIR: I submit herewith an executive report covering the administration of the plant quarantine act for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1918.

Respectfully,

Hon. D. F. HOUSTON,

Secretary of Agriculture.

C. L. MARLATT,

Chairman of Board.

LINES OF WORK.

The principal lines of work under the plant quarantine act during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1918, are as follows: (1) The pink bollworm work, including the cotton-free zone and quarantine work in Texas, the border quarantine and disinfection service as to cars and freight from Mexico, and the research work in relation to the life history and habits and means of control of the pink bollworm conducted in cooperation with Mexico near San Pedro in the Laguna district, Mexico; (2) the regulation of the entry of foreign cotton lint, waste, cotton bagging, etc.; (3) the regulation of the entry of nursery stock and other plants and plant products for propagation; and (4) the enforcement of the miscellaneous foreign and domestic quarantine and other restrictive orders listed at the end of this report.

The personnel of the board and its principal administrative officers remain the same as last year. Owing to war conditions the board has lost many of its efficient inspectors in both local and field service. The pink bollworm work in Texas and on the border has necessitated a very extensive addition to the quarantine inspection force. Port inspection offices are maintained at Boston, New York, Newark, San Francisco, Seattle, Calexico, and all of the border ports between Mexico and Texas. The occasional needs of other border ports and of the interior ports of entry are met for the most part by State officials acting as collaborators of the board. The board has continued its cooperative relations with the State, Treasury, and Post Office Departments of the Federal Government, and with State inspection and other officials. Many of the last have been appointed collaborators of the board.

Some of the more important activities of the board are discussed in the following pages.

THE PINK BOLLWORM.

REVIEW OF WORK IN TEXAS.

The establishment in the Laguna, the principal cotton-growing district of Mexico, of a very serious enemy of cotton, the pink bollworm, an insect before unknown on the North American continent, was discussed in the report of the Federal Horticultural Board last year. There was also noted the establishment of a quarantine immediately following this discovery, in November, 1916, prohibiting the further entry of cotton or cotton seed from Mexico, and the provision for a very complete border-control service to prevent the accidental entry of such products with freight cars or other cars, or freight or baggage, entering the United States from Mexico. A special appropriation of $50,000 by Congress made possible the institution of thoroughgoing inspection and clean-up operations with respect to the mills in Texas, which had, prior to the discovery of this insect in Mexico, received Mexican cotton seed for crushing. To secure information as to the distribution of the pink bollworm in the Laguna district and elsewhere in Mexico, as complete a survey as was possible, under the disturbed conditions obtaining in Mexico at that time, was made by experts of this department.

As reported in a footnote added to the report for last year three outbreaks of the pink bollworm were determined in Texas subsequent to the period covered in that report. Two of these undoubtedly originated from the seed received from Mexico during 1916, viz., at Hearne, reported September 12, and at Beaumont, reported October 15. The third area of infestation, reported October 21, is of uncertain origin and proved to be of much greater importance than the earlier ones, and involved a very considerable area surrounding Trinity Bay, Tex.

The clean-up operations which were instituted immediately on the discovery of each of these several points of infestation were of the most radical character and were made possible by a further emergency appropriation by Congress of $250,000, available October 6,

1917.

With respect to these several points of infestation the one at Hearne, Tex., was very trivial and involved only a few fields of cotton in the immediate neighborhood of the oil mill at that point which had received seed from Mexico in 1916. Only a few injured bolls were found and there is every reason to believe that the infestation at this point was entirely eliminated by the destruction of all growing cotton and the clean-up of the cotton fields which was carried out over a wide radius about the mill in question-a clean-up which involved the uprooting and burning of the standing cotton, the careful collection and burning of all scattered bolls and parts of plants, the prompt milling and destruction of the seed, and the shipment to Europe of the harvested lint.

The infestation in the neighborhood of Beaumont was aggravated by the fact that the mill in this instance violated its contract in relation to seed imported prior to the quarantine of 1916; namely, to use such seed for milling only and under a strict prohibition of sale

for planting. It developed that this mill sold Mexican cotton seed to a good many planters within a range of 20 or 30 miles of the mill, with the result of infesting a large number of cotton fields. These sales were all traced and the entire surrounding district was included in the clean-up operations and subsequent State quarantine.

The infestation about Trinity Bay, Tex., developed into an alarming situation, involving upward of 6,000 acres of cotton more or less surrounding this bay. The source of the infestation about Trinity Bay has not been definitely determined, but seems to have had no relation to any importation of cotton seed from Mexico prior to the establishment of the quarantine. The infestation in this district indicates the probable presence there of the insect for three or four years. The insect may have been introduced through some importation of foreign cotton seed in violation of the Federal quarantine, or, as seems more probable, through some storm-wrecked cotton or cotton seed from Mexico. Following the great storm of 1915 cotton lint and cotton seed were observed quite generally washed up about the shores of this bay, some of which was known to be from the Laguna, Mexico. The distribution of the insect about the bay indicated in the survey of the fall and winter of 1917 bears out this theory of origin.

A large force of experts and laborers was assembled and all the infested fields about Beaumont and Trinity Bay were subjected to the same radical clean-up previously carried out at Hearne, Tex. The officials of the State Department of Agriculture of Texas cooperated heartily, to the extent of available funds, in this survey and clean-up work. A total of 8,794 acres of cotton land in the Trinity Bay and Beaumont districts was thus cleaned of standing and scattered cotton at an average cost of $9.94 per acre. At the beginning the cost of the work was rather high, but as it progressed and the men in charge became more familiar with it, the cost per acre was considerably reduced. This cost does not include the techinical supervision but merely the labor engaged in the actual clean-up, and the transportation and subsistence of this labor where such was necessary. In some cases field camps were established and maintained. The wages paid ranged from $1 to $2.50 per day, the majority of the men receiving $2 per day.

An effort also was made, which was substantially successful, to collect and mill under supervision all cotton seed grown in this section, and to ship the lint cotton to foreign countries via Galveston.

Prior to the discovery of the actual presence of the pink bollworm in Texas it seemed important, to protect the United States from the risk of entry of this insect by natural migration from Mexico, that the State of Texas should enact legislation giving authority to establish a zone free from cotton culture on the border of Texas adjacent to Mexico. A conference in Washington participated in by the commissioner of agriculture of Texas and other officials, including Representatives in Congress from that State, was therefore called under the auspices of the United States Department of Agriculture in July, 1917. This conference resulted in the passage of a law by the State of Texas (Oct. 3, 1917) providing for the establishment of cotton-free zones and giving quarantine and other powers of control

in relation to any districts in Texas infested with the pink bollworm. This act, which calls for Federal cooperation, became effective 90 days after the adjournment of the State legislature. Under it the following action has been taken by proclamation of the Governor of Texas: (1) A pink bollworm quarantine was instituted January 21, 1918, placing under quarantine as to the cotton crop the two infested areas in Texas and providing for the clean-up of the infested fields and the disposition of the crop in such a manner as to afford adequate protection to the cotton industry of Texas. These quarantined zones are (No. 1) an area 6 miles in diameter surrounding the oil mill at Hearne, Tex., and (No. 2) the Trinity Bay and Beaumont districts, including the counties of Chambers, Jefferson, Galveston (except the island of Galveston), and portions of Brazoria, Fort Bend, Harris, Liberty, and Hardin counties. To this district was afterward added a small section, including Arcola as a center, extending to the Brazos River, by a proclamation of February 25, 1918. This extension was based on the finding of a single specimen in a field near Arcola. Inasmuch as this is merely a completion of quarantine district No. 2, the whole Trinity Bay region is referred to in this report as district No. 2.

(2) A border noncotton zone to include the counties of Kinney, Maverick, and Valverde was established February 18, 1918. This action was based on the determination of infestation of cotton lands in Mexico nearly opposite Eagle Pass, within 25 miles of the Texas border. The growth or transportation of cotton or any cotton product from said counties is forbidden for three years.

(3) A proclamation of noncotton zones was issued February 25, 1918, prohibiting after that date the growth of cotton in the districts. above described for a term of three years, or so long as the pink bollworm menace to the cotton industry of Texas should exist.

This action has entailed a certain amount of loss and hardship to many planters within the quarantined and proclaimed cotton-free areas, in that it has eliminated what has been the principal moneyproducing crop. Fortunately in the principal district involved, the Trinity Bay region, cotton has not hitherto been the principal crop of the district, although one of large importance, especially in favorable years.

Some opposition developed to the quarantine and to the establishment of noncotton areas, but it is gratifying to report that the majority of the planters realized the need and the national aspect of the emergency and gave their full and hearty cooperation to the law. Complete cooperation was had in noncotton zone No. 1, involving the Hearne district, and in the border zone.

A very small percentage of the planters included in the quarantined district about Trinity Bay and Beaumont (noncotton zone No. 2), misled by a few interested parties, were induced to plant cotton in violation of the quarantine. About one-half of the cotton thus planted was, however, afterwards plowed out. Fully 95 per cent of the planters in this zone complied with the proclamation of the governor prohibiting the growth of cotton and cooperated fully in the subsequent clean-up operations with respect to volunteer cotton maintained in this district during the summer of 1918.

The extent of this cooperation is indicated by the fact that probably 50,000 acres of cotton would normally have been planted in

zone No. 2, whereas the cotton which was permitted to come to maturity in this district amounted to only 1,789 acres, involving the plantings of 137 individuals. Legal action has been taken by the State of Texas with respect to this unlawfully planted cotton, but, although the law has been sustained, the delay has been such that the crop from this planting has now been matured and is being harvested. This has produced a condition in which the State is faced with the necessity of safeguarding a crop of approximately 800 bales of cotton illegally grown. Rather than enforce the destruction of this cotton, it seemed desirable to effect a compromise, which would leave it available for use and yet so safeguarded in its harvesting and disposition as to reduce the risk probably as much as would its actual destruction at this time. A willingness on the part of the planters concerned to enter into such an arrangement has developed, and the compromised plan is now being put into effect. This compromise involves complete control by the State of the crop produced, and its harvesting and clean-up under the same radical methods followed with last year's crop. It further involves the assumption by the planters of the total cost of the necessary clean-up and their entering into an agreement not to plant or grow cotton in violation of any quarantine on account of the pink bollworm in the State for the term of such quarantine. This department has cooperated in securing this action and will aid in the carrying out of these provisions.

Throughout the summer all of the quarantined districts in Texas have been under inspection, and all volunteer or seedling cotton has been destroyed. The only growing cotton left is in the illegally planted fields in zone No. 2. Fortunately these fields are in parts of the quarantined area which were very sparsely or not at all infested last year, and the clean-up of old cotton and the destruction of the larvæ hibernating in old bolls in these districts, as elsewhere throughout the quarantined areas, was so thoroughly done during the fall and winter of 1917-18 that the likelihood of infestation this year has been reduced to a minimum.

The most encouraging feature of the year's work is the fact that not a single pink bollworm egg, larva, or moth has been found within either of the quarantined areas during the season of 1918, or elsewhere in Texas. This would seem to indicate the efficiency of the clean-up of last year of these districts, and gives very large ground of expectation for the ultimate complete extermination of the pink bollworm in Texas. If this result is achieved it will be the largest successful entomological experiment of the kind in history.

Field surveys are being conducted adjacent to the quarantined districts to determine any possible spread beyond the existing quarantine lines. Similar surveys are being continued also with respect to all the mills in Texas, which, prior to the discovery of the pink bollworm in Mexico, had received cotton seed from that country. Furthermore, all cotton seed and lint which had been imported from Mexico during 1915-16 has been traced to ultimate destination, and in all southern districts where such material has gone an inspection of adjacent cotton fields has been made. No infestations by the pink bollworm, other than those already determined in Texas, have been found anywhere in the United States as a result of these investigations.