THREE PRINCIPAL METHODS of inspection are used to determine the presence of the pink bollworm inspection of cotton blooms, bolls, and gin trash.

During the early part of the cotton-growing season there are no bolls for the pink bollworm to enter and feed on, and the moths that come from over-wintering larvae often deposit their eggs on half-grown cotton squares, or flower buds. The larvae that hatch from the eggs enter the squares and reach maturity at about the time the flower opens. To protect itself from the heat of the sun and from predators, the larva seals the tips of the flower petals together with a fine web; such flowers have a distinctive rosette appearance. An inspector, walking through a cotton field at this stage of its development, can detect easily the abnormal blooms on plants. That method of inspection is used only in areas already known to be infested to determine the degree of carry-over from the previous year.

Green cotton bolls are inspected by making longitudinal cuts midway between the sutures, or lock divisions, and peeling back the boll covering, or hull, without disturbing the contents of the lock. If no larvae or evidence of insect injury is noted on the surface of the developing cotton lock, the inside surface of the removed hull is examined for the characteristic mines left by the young larvae in entering the boll. If a mine is noted, the small larva usually is found in the corresponding part of the developing cotton lock. In nearly mature green bolls, the presence of pink bollworm infestation often can be determined by looking for exit holes in the boll wall these smooth, round holes are about the size of the lead in an ordinary pencil.

After frost has stopped further growth of the cotton, the open mature bolls are examined for exit and partition-wall holes, lint discoloration, and other evidence of insect injury. If such evidence is found, the cottonseeds are cut with a pocket knife. Pink bollworms may be found inside the seeds. Boll inspection is used to determine the bollworm population per acre and may also be used to determine the presence or absence of the insect where cotton acreage is small or isolated and no gin trash is available.

GIN-TRASH inspection is the most rapid and effective method of inspection.

When the seed cotton is brought to a ginning plant, it is first put through cleaners to remove dirt, sand, and leaf particles. Many of the pink bollworms inside the seeds of the cotton locks are shaken out during the process and are discharged with the trash. Samples of the trash are collected from a large number of gins in an area under inspection and are taken to a central location and put through a special inspection machine, which was developed by men in the Department of Agriculture. It uses two screen drums and air suction to eliminate about 99 percent of the dirt and leaf particles; any pink bollworm larvae and other insects are left in the rest.

Inspection of limited amounts of gin trash is conducted annually in the regulated areas to determine the status of the infestation. More extensive inspections are made in the non-regulated parts of the affected States and in the other cotton-growing States in an effort to discover incipient infestations promptly.

THE FEDERAL QUARANTINE is designed primarily to prevent the spread of the pink bollworm across State lines. Suppression of an infestation and the prevention of spread within a State also arc important. A State quarantine therefore is a necessary complement to the Federal order. The quarantines regulate the movement of cotton and its products that can harbor and spread infestation. The shipment of some products is prohibited entirely primarily gin waste and entire cotton plants. Seed cotton may move only to adjoining regulated areas or designated gins for ginning. Cottonseed and cotton lint must be treated under supervision of an inspector in such a way as to kill all pink bollworms; after that, the products may move under certificate from regulated to free areas.

The character of treatment required varies with the degree of infestation present at the originating point of the products.

The principal method of treating Cottonseed to control pink bollworms is to heat the seed to 150 F. for 30 seconds or more. That does not injure the seed for planting. When the seed is properly handled after heating, there is no injury to the oil or products manufactured from it. Another treatment is methyl bromide fumigation at atmospheric pressure. A third method involves fumigation with hydrocyanic acid gas under vacuum. The heat treatment is the only procedure that can be used as a part of continuous ginning.

Approved methods for treatment of lint cotton includes passing the lint between steel rollers that are set to crush all pink bollworms in the lint as it is carried in a thin sheet from the gin stands to the press box; fumigation of the baled cotton with hydrocyanic acid gas under vacuum; and standard or high-density compression of the baled cotton.

Sanitation at gins, oil mills, and other points where untreated cotton and its products may be stored is required. Gins have to dispose of gin trash, cotton burs, and other waste, which is separated from the seed cotton or snapped cotton in ginning. Many gins burn the trash, burs, and waste in incinerators. Others haul the material to a burning ground or dump, where the ginners are held responsible for complete destruction. Some gins have equipment to steam-treat burs so they can be used for feed or fertilizer. An important phase of an inspector's duties is to see that waste material does not become mixed with treated products before it is disposed of.

COTTON PLANTS will grow and produce squares, blooms, and bolls an average of 8 to 10 months of the year in parts of Arizona, southern Louisiana, southern Texas, and northeastern Mexico. Often in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas and nearby areas of Mexico cotton plants remain alive throughout the year; if such plants are not destroyed they will provide food for the pink bollworm and other insects. It is therefore essential, under those conditions, to require a host-free period as a control measure.

The procedure that has been adopted in the lower Rio Grande Valley works about as follows. Growers are placed under individual permits, which authorize them to plant cotton during a specified time. An added stipulation is that the cotton plants must be destroyed by midnight August 31 in such a way as to prevent subsequent growth. The grower or owner of the land is expected to keep his fields entirely free of cotton plants during the host-free period, beginning September i and ending at planting time in late January or early February of the following year. That often means the land may have to be plowed three or four times to destroy seedlings, which come from shattered locks of seed cotton or plants which sprout from old roots of the previous crop. Texas regulations also require the ginners in the lower Rio Grande Valley to collect $ 10 from the growers for each bale of cotton ginned. The money is placed in an escrow fund and returned to the grower upon compliance with the stalk- destruction regulations. If any grower fails to place his cotton field in a host-free condition on schedule, the State has authority to use his escrow funds to do the job.