The Meridional. (Abbeville, La.) 1856-1906, 1889-05-18
,Abberille M(eriaional,
Beating sI,r boil. Worm.

roo,rot or blight in cotton. 1t is
told in a few words: Heavy manur.
ing and a rotation Of crops, | am
satisfied, will prevent it in any field
in three or tour years. | believe ]
made larger crops Of cotton than
any man in Texas on prairie land.
I will tell yon as briefly as possible
my mode Of planting and c%ultivating.
| bed for cotton on the hard
ground; do not want a center fur
row to bed on. My plowsa are start
ed about March l., bedding rows
three feet nine inches wide. -Four
furrows with turn pillow will throw
ont that width laud. | plow in all
the cor stalks, weeds, grass anltrash
that is not wood. The corn stalks
are first chopped into three OF four
pieces, and a tree top is dragged
with the rows, which straightens
all the trash, stalks and grass. so
the plows have no trouble to turn
under all that is on the land. [ pre-
fer my beds to be fresh. If land is
'bedded a month before planting they
become compact. | want the seed
bed loose and pulveriscd so | can
get a good regular stand of cotton.
| plant the first seed about tic
Goth of March. If a favorable spring
like this has been, sand try to be
through by the 10th of April. At
this writing, 9Th Of April, | have a
nice stand on one hundred acres,
and will get through planting to.
day. When the cotton is ten days
old | run a fourteen inch sweep
close up to it and let stand ten days;
then | bar off and chop out to twelve
Or fourteen inches, two Or three
stalks in a place. From this time
on | II the sweep very shallow
just deep enough to destroy the grass
and weeds-until about the first to
fifteenth of July. l try to get the
hoes all over the first time in one
week, so as to get TO the first that
was chopped as soon as possible to
thin out to one stalk. | use Pcterkin
seed, as ( get a bale of 4SO to 500
pounds from 1900 pounds Of seed
cotton. ] think it stands the drouth
better than the large seeded variety.
About the 18th Of juno [ drive a
stake in the ground about one foot
higher than the top of the cotton,
and nail a small piece of board on
it, set a small tin pan or plate on it,
fill half full Of water, pour on one
spoonful of coal oil, and between
shutdown and dark | set a small
brass or tin lamp, lighted. in the
pan. If | catch eight or ten boil.
worm flies the FIRST night, l light
one hundred lamps the next night
on n hundred and sixty acres. I
have caught as many as one hundred
millers to the lamp each night for
ii few days, and while they are SO
plentiful l light the lamps every
night. When the number Of flies is
reduced so | catch only four Or five
to the lamp, VIC light them only
three times a week. The round
wick lamp is used, and I,fll it half
full of oil. It will burn all night
and saves the time Of going around
in the morning to extinguish the
light, as it will usually burn out by
sunrise. The lamp will cffectually
destroy all tho bollworm flies if
properly attended to, and when the
first flies appear that make the army
worm the lamp gets them. Now.
should You g Paris green it will
prevent the army worn from eating
the cotton, but what is the use doing
so if the boll-worms arc permitted to
destroy the fruit? The Paris green
does not stop the boll-worln, but the
lamp destroy both.
My n%eighbors' cotton attains a
height of at least one foot great
er than mine. The cause is, they
cultivate too deep, and the boil,
worm destroys the fruit, and the
stalk continues to grow in size in
stead Of producing fruit. l make at
least one good bale Of cotton per
acre, on cotton three to four feet
high, and others get one bale Of cot.
ton off three acres and the stalks
five to six feet high. l furnish the
oils. lamps, pans and cans, and the