In Mexico what is known as the Cotton-Boll Weevil (_Anthonomus grundis_) appears to do great mischief to the Cotton plant. It does most damage during the larvae stage, eating up the tender portions of the boll while in residence here. When matured it is only a little under half an inch in length. Many other insects act injuriously upon the Cotton plant, but the following may be taken as the chief: Cotton Cutworm (_Feltia malefida_); Cotton lice (_Aphis gossypii_). Among the lepidoptera may be mentioned, _Cocaecia rosaceana_, or "Leaf-roller," so called from its habit of curiously rolling the leaves of the Cotton plant and then feeding inside the roll. Then grasshoppers and locusts occasionally do some damage, as well as a beetle named _Ataxia crypta_, which is noted for attacking the stalks of the Cotton plants, but it should be pointed out this beetle does not prey upon healthy and vigorous plants at all. Scores of other insects could be mentioned as injurious, though some of them do but very slight damage indeed to the Cotton plant. It does appear, however, from long years of experiment and observations, that little damage needs to be feared if the plants, while growing, and during the formation of the boll, can be carefully watched and guarded. The plants when matured are better able to withstand the onslaughts which these predaceous insects make upon them. Then again, there are large numbers of physiological diseases of the cotton due to inherent weakness of the plant or failure of assimilative processes. And lastly, vast numbers of fungi, too numerous to mention here, work serious injury to leaf, flower and boll in certain seasons of the year. CHAPTER III. CULTIVATION OF THE COTTON PLANT IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. From what has already been said, it will be quite clear that the Cotton plant will only successfully thrive in those regions on the earth's surface where there are suitable temperature and soil, and a proper and adequate supply of moisture both in the atmosphere and soil. When the 45th parallel of North Latitude is reached, the plant ceases to grow except under glass or in exceptionally well favoured and temperate districts. Below the Equator the southern limit is the 35th parallel. With a model of the globe before him, the reader will see, if he mark the two lines already named, what a small belt the "Cotton-growing zone" is, compared with the rest of the globe, and yet in 1901 it is estimated that no fewer than 10,486,000 bales of 500 lbs. net average each were produced in the United States alone, 695,000 came from the cotton fields of India, from Egypt 1,224,000, an increase of 600,000 bales in ten years. This vast quantity does not include what was produced in other countries, which we know in the aggregate was very considerable.