The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1889-04-25
Losses in Cotton Culture.


The subject that 1 have chosen for dis
cussion il, "What is the Loss to the State
of Texas Caused by the Dying of Cotton ?
and What Loss do We Sustain from the
Boil Wormf" A few years ago 1 shipped
seed to good many points in this state,
and requested most of the men that sent
seed to to let me know what per cent of
the cotton died before maturity, and, with
the answers that have received and nv
own experience, have come to the con-
clusion that about one-seyenth of the crop
of the state dies from some cause every
year. Now, let's look into this a little. We
had something like 100000 acres in cot
ton last year, and one-seventh of this is
$4,000 acres. Now, this vast tract Is we'll
worked every year and not a single thing
is raised on it. Just think of it! $4,000
| acres of land as bare as the great desert
OF Sahara! Allowing twenty-fiv acres to
| the hand, we have %, $40 men and as many
teams that work the whole year and make
absolutely nothing. While this docs not
fall upon any one man it equals this num-
Der, and each man that raises cotton has
his portion of this burden to bear.
Now,as to what it is that causes the cot
ton to die this way there are good many
theories. This general belief is that there
! is something in the sub-soil that causes it
to die, while some think that it is para
site and some think it is fungus growth.
have watched it very closely and have
| tried some experiments on 1t. 1t generally
commences at the bottom of the tap root
and gradually works its way up until the
stalk dies, but it never extends above the
ground. When the stalk dies, that above
ground dries up. The sweet potato rots
from the same cause, and cotton planted
on patch after the potatoes nearly always
| all dies. Now, my experience is that the
cotton does not commence to die until the
tap roots gets hold of the sub-soil. found
that it did dot die as badly when 1 ran two
plows in the same furrow and plowed the
land very deep, but this did not stop it
entirely. have planted oats and plowed
them under for sweet potatoes and had
none to rot, when the land that had
nothing nearly all rotted. I believe that
if we had our land we'll drained and could
pillow up as deep as the cotton roots go
that we would lose but little if any. But
this Is only theory; I do not know that it
would. If you will take these dead stalks
and split them open you will find that
there are about three out of five that have
worm in the pitA of the stalk. Whether
this worm has anything to do with the
death of the stalk or not am not able to
say. have kept them some time, but
l have failed to get anything out of them.
If any one can furnish any light on the
subject can furnish the worm, and he
seems to be quite at home. You will not
find any of them in stalks that have stayed
green up to frost. If the worm does any
mischief it can be easily destroyed by
gathering the stalks and burning them.
There is no way to make anything like
correct estimate Of what portion of the
crop is destroyed by the boil worm, but it
is safe to say that it is one acre in seven
or fully as much as is caused by the cot
ton dying. There has never been any sue
cessful effort to destroy them that I am
aware of. This worm does not confne it.
self to cotton alone; its first appearance is
in the corn tassel and then in the silk. A
close observer will have noticed that his
cotton sheds more bolls next to corn than
it does in the middle of his field.
These two agents of destruction are the
direct cause of the labor of over $4,000
men and teams being thrown away. The
support of this army has to be drawn from
the other portion of the crop.
Another loss to the cotton farmer Is in
not improving his seed and keeping it i'm
proved. We can very easily raise thirty
or forty pounds of lint more to the acre
if we want to, and we have no one to
blame but ourselves. ran gin last fall
and some crops averaged the season
through twenty pounds mCre of lint
to the same number of pounds of seed
cotton than others.-Texas Farm and
Ranch.