is the reason I called your attention to the matter after I had examined the act.

Mr. MARLATT. Yes, sir.

Mr. SISSON. I also want to ask you this question: Do you not believe it is extremely wise that the Agricultural Department should have a fund rather in the nature of an emergency fund, so that if the pink boll weevil actually appears in Texas you can take some instant steps to arrest its spread?

Mr. MARLATT. A good deal of this fund that is now asked is in the nature of what might be called an emergency fund, not necessarily to be expended. I pointed out that out of this appropriation we are only actually proposing to spend by an immediate organization $190,000. The other $310,000 is for expenditure if the expenditure is needed or justified, and it may not be spent; but if it is needed and its expenditure is justified, the money should be available, as you suggest, otherwise we might miss the opportunity.

Mr. SISSON. I do not know whether the record shows this fact or not; but can the Agricultural Department assure the Congress that if the appropriation is made you can absolutely control the spread of the pink boll weevil into the United States?

Mr. MARLATT. I wish I could give you that assurance, but that is going beyond human knowledge. We can give you this assurance, that the measures which we are proposing cover all the possible means of prevention which seem practicable and possible of application and enforcement.

Mr. SISSON. Does the department know as much now about the spread of the pink boll weevil as they do about the spread of the Mexican boll weevil?

Mr. MARLATT. No; because we have not studied it so long. We know a great deal, because the insect has been studied for 8 to 10 years in Egypt by men competent to make a thoroughgoing scientific study of it. We ourselves have made a very thorough study of it from the habit and life history standpoint in the Hawaiian Islands, where it was introduced a few years ago by seed, and where it has put out of commission the promising cotton industry of those islands. That is the only land in American control now invaded with the pink bollworm.

Mr. CANNON. As I understand you, the expenditure you would make during this season would be not to exceed $190,000?

Mr. MARLATT. That is, that would cover the organization and the work we propose to do.

Mr. CANNON. I mean during this present season-the summer and fall.

Mr. MARLATT. Exactly; but the other fund is for work which may be necessary as a result of this survey and inspection.

Mr. CANNON. After you have made the survey and inspection? Mr. MARLATT. Or in the progress of the survey. If we then find an infested point we want to be able to stamp it right out.

Mr. CANNON. Then you do propose to spend more than the $190.000. I understood you to say that was all that was contemplated to be expended during this season.

Mr. MARLATT. I was perhaps unfortunate in my statement. The organization and the work we propose in Texas and immediately

adjacent in Mexico would cost that much. The cost of extermination if we find areas needing extermination might call for the balance. Mr. CANNON. Precisely; but Congress will meet in December, and you would then know more about it than you do now.

Mr. MARLATT. But if we wanted to do the work in November or December we could not get the money from Congress until January or February, when it would probably be too late.

Mr. BYRNS. As I understand you, this $310,000 that you ask for in addition to the $190,000 is desired so that it can be used in the event your survey develops the necessity for using it while the survey is being made?

Mr. MARLATT. Exactly.

Mr. BYRNS. That is the reason why you can not state whether or not it will be used.

Mr. MARLATT. Yes.

Mr. BYRNS. It all depends on development.

Mr. CANNON. Do you think there is a possibility or any probability that you will use this $500,000 between now and December?

Mr. MARLATT. I hope we will not.

Mr. CANNON. But I understood you to say primarily you did not anticipate using more than $190,000.

Mr. MARLATT. No; I said the $190,000 would cover the work of the experts and the organization and the survey and the clean-up work we are going to do. But it would not cover the extermination work in Mexico which we may find it necessary to do to safeguard us from the proximity of the insect and the likelihood of its entering from such proximity. This other sum we may or may not spend.

Mr. CANNON. And you may spend the additional $310,000 by going over into Mexico and cleaning that up and exterminating the weevil. I just want to know if there is a faint possibility of your doing the latter during the next six months?

Mr. MARLATT. There is more than a faint possibility. There is a fair probability that we will want to spend some of it, and if we should need to spend all of it, it would be well worth spending.

Mr. Chairman, we have a number of experts from the department here if you would like to hear from them about this matter.

The CHAIRMAN. I think you have covered the matter very thoroughly. There is just one matter I would like to ask you about. I understood you to say that you did not intend to pay for cotton destroyed in Mexico; that is, you do not contemplate doing that under this appropriation?

Mr. MARLATT. We had reference to the Laguno district. We would like to have the power broadly drawn in the bill so that if we find a small patch of cotton on the Rio Grande Valley or near it belonging to some Mexican we would like to be able to destroy it, and the only way we can do that is to pay him the loss. It is much better to have the power to do that than to say that we will not pay for it, because he will then say that it will not be destroyed. If we should have to destroy 100 acres here and there, it would cost something to do it. The actual work of destruction wouldn't cost a great deal, but we could not put that on the owner, even if he should allow us to destroy his cotton, and he should be paid for the actual loss sustained on the crop. I think we ought to look at that fairly in the face. This is not

dealing with our own people. It is dealing with a planter in a friendly country, and we can not go in and destroy that man's cotton and make him no return.

The CHAIRMAN. But the question is one of policy in going into a foreign country and undertaking to eliminate a pest by destroying property and paying for it. That is a question of policy that should be very carefully considered.

Mr. MARLATT. Of course.

The CHAIRMAN. Because if we start in with these 100-acre patches we may get up to 8,000-acre patches.

Mr. CANNON. If you once got over into Mexico, would you not have a geometrical multiplication of those 100-acre cotton fields?

Mr. MARLATT. I do not think there would be much money spent in

that way.

The CHAIRMAN. I think it is a question of policy that should be very carefully considered, because if we go to Mexico, why not go to India and Egypt?

Mr. MARLATT. Of course, gentlemen, that is your responsibility. The CHAIRMAN. That is why I asked you about just what you contemplated doing. I did not want any misunderstanding about it.

Mr. MARLATT. We have the responsibility of keeping out this insect, and if we find a small field full of it near us in Mexico, with fields on our side, there is only one thing to do, and that is to eliminate it from that infested field. We have got to meet that proposition. It might mean hundreds of millions of dollars to us if the insect entered from such fields and only a few hundred dollars to the Mexican planter, but those few hundred dollars to the planter means just as much to him as the larger sum does to us. I think we have got to look at that squarely. It might not be good precedent, and it might lead, as Mr. Cannon says, to a good many hundred fields being found, and if it does we will have to stop it, but if it will be the means of cleaning up points of infestation which are too near us to be safely left, I think we ought to be empowered to do it.

Mr. BYRNS. That is the case in Mexico. That applies to Mexico. Do you ever pay for cotton fields destroyed in this country? Mr. MARLATT. We have not.

Mr. BYRNS. I mean, if it was in Texas, would you pay for it?

Mr. MARLATT. We are not doing that, and we are not asking for that now in the present plan.

Mr. SISSON. I think if the same precautions had been taken in reference to the Mexican bool weevil that the Agricultural Department are now endeavoring to take in reference to the pink boll worm the cotton industry in the South, the cotton spindles of the world would be in a very much better condition.

The statement submitted by Mr. Marlatt follows:

DETAILED ESTIMATE OF EXPENDITURES UNDER PROPOSED EMERGENCY PINK BOLLWORM APPROPRIATION.

Under this appropriation the following important work can be immediately undertaken to prevent the introduction of the pink boll worm from Mexico into the United States:

1. Cotton-free zone:

The establishment of a cotton-free zone in Texas is dependent for its full accomplishment on legislation yet to be enacted by that State. As the result of a conference with State officials July 17, 1917, the commissioner of agricul

ture of Texas and other officials appointed by the governor to represent the State in this conference have assured the department that immediate steps will be taken to secure at the earliest moment legislation giving power to establish a quarantine under which the growing of cotton in restricted areas. can be prohibited, either directly or indirectly,

Pending the enactment of such legislation by the State of Texas it is now possible, under existing Federal authority and with the assured cooperation of the State of Texas and of the planters of the region covered, to establish a cotton-free zone along the border of Mexico substantially as proposed in the letter of the Secretary of Agriculture of June 22, 1917. For purposes of administration and clean-up work it is proposed to divide this zone, consisting of the border counties of Texas between El Paso and Brownsville, into six districts, based on the amount of cotton culture to be supervised. Within these districts a good deal of very useful and valuable work can be now done in the destruction of volunteer cotton and all waste seed and volunteer growth along railroad tracks and about cotton milis. This will apply particularly to extended areas where cotton is not commercially grown, but where sufficient volunteer and other limited growth of cotton exists to serve as a means of local establishment or carriage of the insect. In the two southeastern counties of the strip, where cotton is cultivated on a larger scale the same supervision as to volunteer and waste cotton can be carried out in a thoroughgoing manner, and the commercial growth of cotton in this district and elsewhere in the zone can be greatly restricted by the voluntary cooperation of the planters concerned, the most hearty assurances of such cooperation having been already received. The remaining plantings, if any, should be given frequent and minute examination throughout the growing season to determine any point of infestation, if such exists, at the earliest moment. Funds should be available for all the work referred to and for the extermination of the cotton and insects in any infested fields found. By this sort of work the possibility of the establishment of the insect in volunteer cotton throughout the zone will be reduced to the minimum and any point of infestation in commercial plantings can probably be early determined and necessary exterminative work promptly undertaken.

It will undoubtedly be possible through the agents which the department can keep in this area, working in cooperation with the planters, to safeguard the distribution of the cotton products from this area and to provide particularly for the grinding at local mills of all cotton seed to eliminate the risk of distribution of the pink bollworm with possibly infested seed distributed for milling purposes elsewhere.

For inspection and field administration of the work in these six districts it is proposed to employ six inspectors, who shall be high grade, experienced men. It is believed that to secure the grade of men needed for this work it will be necessary to offer a salary of from $2,000 to $2,500. This would indicate for such inspection and supervision an expenditure of approximately $15,000.

The actual work of destroying volunteer and other cotton would be performed by laborers under foremen, who will also act as assistant inspectors. It is estimated that at least 12 foremen and from 60 to 100 laborers will be needed to do the work proposed. To cover this work, including such local travel as may be necessary, it is estimated that an expenditure of $117,000 will be

necessary.

In addition to the field supervision and labor, it is estimated that the necessary transportation of the inspectors, the purchase of implements and supplies, and all other necessary expenses, will call for the balance of the estimated cost of the establishment of such cotton-free zone, namely, $28,000.

Summary of estimated cost of maintaining cotton-free zone.

6 supervising inspectors____

12 assistant inspectors or foremen....

$15,000

27.000

Labor_____

90,000

Transportation, implements, supplies, and all other necessary charges__

28.000

Total

160,000

2. Inspection to determine any point of occurrence of pink bollworm in Mexico adjacent to border of United States as basis for extermination of such points of infestation.

It is proposed to determine by repeated inspections of all cotton plantings in Mexico in the territory immediately adjacent to Texas any point of estab

lishment of the pink boll worm. These surveys are to furnish the information for local clean-up and exterminative work to keep the pink boll worm as far as possible from our border and to widen the free area. The estimated cost of the work suggested in this paragraph is $30,000, which will pay the salaries and traveling expenses of at least six entomological experts, it being understood that in many instances the cost of such surveys for conveyance and interpreters will be high, but thoroughly justified by the emergency.

3. The clean up of local points of infestation in Mexico near the American border.

The extermination, in cooperation with the Mexican Government or with local Mexican authorities and the planters concerned, of local infestations in Mexico near the American border will be possible; and on the discovery of such local points of infestation, as a result of the surveys discussed in the previous paragraph, means should be available for the destruction of the cotton found to be infested. Such destruction and clean up can be economically supervised and directed, in most instances, by the entomological experts conducting the surveys. The $50,000 included under this item is to cover the expense of labor and other means involved in the destruction of such infested cotton, and the expenditure of any or all of this sum is dependent on the amount of infestation found.

The board has received assurances which make it certain that it will be possible to carry out such work in cooperation with the Mexican planters concerned and local Mexican officials.

4. General surveys in Mexico to determine present spread of pink boll worm and, if found practicable and necessary, the institution of exterminative work.

This survey will have particular relation to the Laguna district and should be supplemented by thorough inspection of adjacent regions in Mexico where cotton may be grown to a limited extent, and particularly as to any such regions which have received seed from the Laguna for planting.

The proposed survey of the Laguna district and adjacent cotton-growing regions is to form a basis for determining the possibility and practicability of undertaking, in cooperation with the Mexican Government, the eradication of the pink boll worm in Mexico. The only absolute prevention of the entry of the pink boll worm into the United States from Mexico lies in the possibility of exterminating this insect in Mexco, and, if as the result of these surveys such extermination should appear to be practicable of accomplishment, the United States would be justified in cooperation with Mexico in such exterminative work and providing for large expenditures therefor. Further, if it should prove that this insect is still limited in Mexico to the Laguna region, the isolation of this region by natural barriers, mountains, and uncultivated areas, and the fact that this area is owned in large tracts by planters of unusual intelligence, who have expressed a hearty desire and willingness to cooperate, will vastly facilitate the exterminative work.

A considerable fund, therefore, should be reserved for this purpose, to be used during the latter part of the summer or early fall, with the expectation that the funds so held would be sufficient to maintain such effective control of the infested area as would prevent further spread and to begin such eradication measures as should be immediately instituted. It is obviously desirable to undertake the eradication of the pink boll worm in Mexico, even at considerable cost, provided the survey in Mexico should determine that the eradication of the insect might be accomplished, and it is obvious that eradication work becomes more and more difficult and finally becomes impossible with the delay in undertaking such work.

To proceed with our surveys, therefore, which is necessarily the first step in the work, and then to be unable to follow up any important opportunities might defeat the main purpose of the survey of existing conditions in Mexico. About $260,000 of the sum carried in this item should be held for the purpose of inaugurating eradication work, if such work should appear to be feasible, and this sum probably would not be more than sufficient to maintain the eradication measures during September, October, November, and December. If it should appear that eradication measures in Mexico can not succeed, this sum would, of course, revert to the Treasury, and the continuation of the work of maintaining a protective zone along the Mexican border would be presented for further support in the agricultural appropriation bill of the coming year.