The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 94, July 1990 - April, 1991 Page: 41
692 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Pznk Bollworm in Texas
lated continuation of the cooperation between the United States and
Mexico that the boll weevil had initiated a few years earlier.
There was never a formal treaty between the United States and Mex-
ico regarding the cooperative fight, but cooperate they did. R. E. Mc-
Donald, who joined the Texas Department of Agriculture and the pink
bollworm fight in 1918, remembered that dealings between Texas and
U.S. officials on the one side and Mexican officials on the other were
always informal. He said that letters were exchanged about the pink
bollworm problem or officials of the two countries met to discuss what
to do."'
Robert W. White, an employee of the USDA, writes that at the time
of the early infestation it was imperative to find out the extent of the
infestation in Mexico: "Political conditions in that country were quite
unsettled during this period and no formal cooperative arrangement
was worked out between the two Departments for a survey." " The
Texas agriculture commissioner, Fred W. Davis, sent Ed. L. Ayers,
chief inspector of Orchards and Nurseries in the Agriculture Depart-
ment, and O. J. James, who spoke Spanish, to Mexico on December 6,
1916, to check cotton fields at San Pedro, Torreon, and the Laguna dis-
trict in general. Ayers found his trip to Torreon cut off by "the attack of
[Pancho] Villa on this section."'
Ayers, however, said that he and James were shown the utmost cour-
tesy by the government of President Benustiano Carranza and that he
believed it would be safe to do more work in Mexico. The Texans
found pink bollworms at Monterrey, though they reported Mexican
officials were denying that the pest was in their country. In early 1917,
the federal government sent Dr. August Busck, an employee of USDA
and a leading authority on the pink bollworm, into Mexico to check on
infestations. Busck entered Mexico at Nuevo Laredo on April 13, 1917,
and "after considerable delay on account of the required fumigation of
baggage and due to belated trains," proceeded to Saltillo."
The political upheaval in Mexico also hampered Busck. He had been
instructed to cooperate with the Mexican commissioner, Sefior A.
Maderiago, and to meet him in Torreon, but unsafe conditions pre-
vented him from proceeding and he did not meet the commissioner at
all on this trip. Busck reported to Charles L. Marlatt, chairman of the
Federal Horticultural Board, "Urgently advised by the British Con-
"'R E. McDonald to Truman McMahan, July, 1970, interview
" Robert W White, "History of the Iink Bollworm Infestation in the United States, 1917-
1959" (Unpublished manuscript, 196o, copy in author's possession), 157.
2 Scholl, "Report," 86 (quotation), 87-94.
' Ibid , 87-88, 89 (quotation).
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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/m1/65/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.