Evening star., 1916-11-12

a LTHOUGH 1t may seem ridicu-
IN 1ous to spend thousands of dol
IN lars annually to prevent one
. q little moth egg that could pass
through the eye of a cambria needle
from entering the country. the machin-
cry of the Departments of Agriculture.
state. Treasury and Post Office are CO.
operating to keep out that little pest,
the pink cotton boll-worm.
The same agencies are united to ex-
clude by quarantine diseased potatoes.
trees. shrubs and plants, and in so do
ing are accomplishing far more than
one would think toward holding down
BE Cos. Ct living.
The general STAR which conducts
the defense against plant disease is
known as the federal horticultural
board and is composed of five high Off
cials of appropriate bureaus of the De-
partment Of Agriculture.
All along the fertile valley of the
Nile, where the luxuriant Egyptian cot
ton grows. planters are more worried
over the Iuinous work of the pink boil
worm in their cotton fields than they
are over the greater devastation of the
European war.
In the CONSERVATION caused by the
loss of fifth of their crop they have
thrown up the barriers and are exclud-
ing all foreign cotton-an unnecessary
measure against the pest. with it's life
cycle of destruction so firmly in possess
sion of their fields: but directed against
any further insect invaders
The pink boll-worm was taken to
Egypt from India. where its wretched
family billions are still leaving their
baleful impress
The tiny egg is deposited by the
mother moth upon the growing plant
leaf. which becomes the food of the
egg. Thence ii eats it's way into the
heart of the cotton boil. where in this
destructive stage II spends about TWEEN
ty days. until full grown. when it is
nearly half an inch long
1t has been feeding upon the cotton
seeds. and when about to transform
into the pupa and become a moth again
II occupies the hull, from which it has
fsh color and its place of living have
given it the name pink boll-worm."
In about two weeks more the moth
emerses. a fragile insect about three
quarters of an inch in expanse, now a
grayish brown color with darker
splotches. In three or four days it
deposits its eggs and lives ten days or
more; doing harm all it's life and leav-
ing behind it a multiplied evil sue
cession.
While the annual yield of American
Sea Island cotton. the best in the world.
10 by no means enough to make all the
spool cotton. automobile tires and other
textiles requiring a grade better than
that of ordinary upland cotton, it is
somewhat surprising to learn that 300.-
900 bales of Egyptian cotton contain
mated by the pink boll-worm are i'm
ported with impunity to the United
States.
This was made possible by sys-
tenn of fumigation originated by the
board and worked out on a commercial
scale by its experts, by which every
bale Is disinfected before distribution
The cotton-a couple of hundred
bales at time-is placed in a great
horizontal cylinder of heavy structural
steel. hermetically sealed and then the
air is pumped out until there is almost
a vacuum within. Hydrocyanic acid
gas is then admitted, and although the
bales are compressed before shipment
until they are almost as hard as blocks
OF wood. IL penetrates the cotton so