c APPENDIX. 
indigenous to the country or locality; besides these, there is always 
the possibility of pests belonging to other parts of the globe being 
introduced. It is of great importance that the Agricultural 
Departments of these different countries should be notified of any 
such outbreaks, not only for administrative purposes, so that 
regulations to prevent the spread of such outbreaks can be enforced, 
but for the information of their entomologists and mycologists, whose 
work might be greatly assisted by any available information regarding 
the pests’ life histories, how the disease may be spread, meteorological 
and ecological conditions which favour their spread and what chances 
there are for such spread. 
Unauthorised reports of outbreaks may cause unnecessary alarm 
in adjoining territories, but if the Agricultural Department concerned 
were to issue a full report on this, which could be circulated to other 
countries, it might help all concerned. For example, last year the 
Government entomologist of a certain colony discovered the pink 
bollworm in an isolated district: it also occurred in the adjoining 
district of a neighbouring colony. From information collected by 
him, it was probable that this pest occurred north of that area on the 
native indigenous kidney cotton. It was only by chance that the 
Government entomologist was called to go up to this district to 
examine native cotton crops, when he discovered the infection. If 
it is true that the pest does occur to the north of this tract and that 
there was a danger of infection, then such information, if it had been 
furnished by one Government to the other, would have been of the 
greatest importance both from an administrative and entomological 
point of view. From an administrative point of view because the 
District Administrative officer had been doing his best to foster cotton 
cultivation in his district and with considerable success, when 
suddenly he had to tell the people that they were not allowed to 
grow cotton any longer: also from the point of view of movements of 
cotton from this area. If a full statement of the outbreak had been 
issued and circulated to other countries, stating what steps had been 
taken to prevent the possible spread of this pest elsewhere, where the 
area was situated, what were its boundaries and what possibility 
there was of its spreading by cultivation, it might quite well have 
allayed any alarm created by any unauthorised reports which may 
have been circulated. 
Such reports also, following on such a Conference as this, where 
scientific officers concerned with ‘cotton diseases have a chance to 
meet and confer, will undoubtedly lead to closer co-operation and 
collaboration in the future, esvecially if information concerning such 
pests is circulated as suggested in this note. 
(8) SEED IMPROVEMENT: METHOD OF TESTING NEW AND 
IMPROVED STRAINS OF COTTON IN DIFFERENT PARTS 
OF THE COUNTRY. 
(Note by Mr. H. C. Sampson of the British Empire Cotton Growing 
Corporation.—T.C.(C)Cot.4.) 
It is taken for granted that, when new and improved strains of 
cotton have been produced on a central station, they will have to be 
tested to find out how far they are suitable for different parts of the 
country. 
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