The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 94, July 1990 - April, 1991 Page: 44
692 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Hzstorzcal Quarterly
in from Mexico was "unprecedented and due entirely to the distur-
bances in Mexico, which had prevented the operations of the large
mills in the Laguna, which normally crushed all of the seed produced
there." 22
Secretary Houston's department had asked Congress for $5o,ooo with
which to trace the cottonseed shipped into Texas, and that sum was
made available in March 1917. In July 1917, Houston requested and
his department was granted an emergency appropriation of $500,000
to combat the pink bollworm threat.21 One use made of such funds was
to send inspectors to the border to prevent entry of other cotton prod-
ucts from Mexico. Hunter said that, as soon as the pink bollworm was
found in Mexico, the United States started a system of inspecting and
disinfecting all freight and vehicles that might haul insects across the
Rio Grande. "Fumigating houses" large enough to accommodate sev-
eral freight cars were built at Brownsville, Laredo, Eagle Pass, Del Rio,
and El Paso, and special agents were stationed at international bridges
to inspect hand luggage.24
Commissioner Davis pledged to Secretary Houston the cooperation
of the Texas Department of Agriculture, though there were no state
funds available for an anti-pink bollworm program. Officials in Wash-
ington, D.C., asked the Texas governor to send state technical men and
Rio Grande Valley cotton growers to a hearing in Washington in which
a proposed quarantine of Texas counties bordering Mexico was to be
considered. Texans attending the meeting included Davis, Scholl, and
Ayers from the Texas Department of Agriculture; Floyd B. Paddock,
chief research entomologist of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Sta-
tion System at College Station; C. H. Pease of Raymondville; H. H.
Harrington of Kingsville; and C. L. Jessup, C. H. More, R. B. Renfro,
Amos Rich, and S. C. Tucker, all of Brownsville."
A non-cotton zone along the border with Mexico was considered, but
Texans recommended instead a non-cotton zone on the Mexican side
where less cotton was grown! It was pointed out that in 1917 there were
24,000 acres of cotton in Cameron and Hidalgo counties alone and that
growing no cotton would work an extreme hardship on those who
farmed those acres. The conferees did not recommend any non-cotton
zone, but such a measure was kept in mind." Texans pledged coopera-
tion in any pink bollworm eradication program that became necessary.
"'W. D. Hunter, "The Work in the United States Against the Pink Boll Worim," Journal of
Economic Entomology, XII (Apr., 1919), 166, 167 (quotation).
2 Scholl, "Report," 83, 86.
24 Hunter, "Fight Against the Pink Bollworm," 359
21Scholl, "Report," 98-99.
20Ibid., 97-98.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 94, July 1990 - April, 1991, periodical, 1991; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101214/m1/68/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.