The Savannah morning news., 1902-10-26
CAN'T KILL COTTON wEEvIL.
Texas Entomologist and Farmers
Despair-Last Year 1t Ate $40, OOO,-
From the New York Sun.


900.
From the New York Sun.
New Orleans, Oct. 16.-Prof. Mally.
the state entomologist of Texas, upon
whom the cotton farmers have depend
ed to save them from the ravages of
the Mexican boil weevil. after two
years careful study of that destructive
insect has reported that neither he nor
the government. state or national, can
do anything for the farmers. Their
only hope lies in themselves, in years
of hard work and heavy expense. If
they keep up the fight they will In
time get control of the weevil, and pos
sibly eradicate it. Such is the slender
hope that Prof Mally holds out to
them.
For the three or four years since the
wcevil crossed the Rio Grande from
Mexico it has been the object of close
study and relentless war. in the hope
that it would be crushed out. The Unit
ed States chronological Bureau, the
Department of Agriculture, the state
entomologist and the farmers them
selves have all tried to get rid of the
weevil. One by one their hopes have
resulted in failure.
The Department of Agriculture pro-
posed to get rid of the weevils by Gull
tivating Egyptian or some other va
riety of cotton that the Mexican visi-
tors could not eat. The idea. based
upon the experience of the French vine
growers, in substituting American for
French vines when the latter were at
tackled by the phylexera, was excellent
in theory, but proved a failure in prac-
tice, AS the Egyptian cotton did not
prosper in Texas.
Then came the idea of getting rid Of
the weevil by finding some other in
sect that would devour or destroy 1t. A
fungus growth was reported very dam
aging to the insect, and a strange new
butterfly devoured it in large quanti-
ties. There has been no trouble in find
ing phagocytes for the weevils, but
unfortunately their appetites were not
Sufficiently voracious. They ate the
weevils, but not enough of them, only
the superfluous insects which wan
dered off from the main hordes Not
only the new butterflies devour them.
but so does the common everyday ant,
all in vexatious moderation. The only
insect that preys on the weevils vora-
ciousiy enough to have any
influence on their numbers is
inc cotton CATERPILLAR, and there Is
nothing to be gained by using one en-
envy of the cotton to kill another.
For a time the Texas farmers were
delighted at the news that the weevil
had completely disappeared from Rio
Grande county, where it first appeared,
ana the hope arose that in time it
would desert the rest of the district
which 1T has ravaged. An investigation
left no ground for this hope. The wee
Wis have left Rio Grande, it is true
but they have left there only because
they completely destroyed the cotton
crop of the county. There was no cot
ton left for them, and as they will eat
nothing else, they got out to more in
Vitlng fields. They win leave the 9TH
er counties in time, but not until they
have annihilated the cotton.
In the meantime they have eaten
this year, 100000 bales of cotton. worth
s2O,0OO,000. and have crossed Red river
into the Indian Territory. BY next
year there will not be a single growing
cotton county in Texas free from the
Weevil, unless the farmers Of the state
take energetic steps to check its prog
ress.
There is but one way, Prof. Mally
says, to fight the insect, and that is by
removing the insects by hand He sug-
gests various other plans that will help
along with the work. Thus he sug-
gests the idea of planting trap crops or
trap rows of variety of early cotton.
me idea is to make an attractive spot
or attractive spots about the farm for
the earliest weevils where they may be
colonized and more successfully con-
tfolled. These trap rows should also
be placed around gins and along the
woodland side of the farms, as the in
sects hibernate in cotton seed and in
the woods. When the weevils are thus
attracted to these traps, they can be
more successfully treated by hand pick
ing, spraying, ETC., and the summer
brood will be materially diminished
But this is merely an incident. The
ngnt must be kept up vigorously all the
time. Prof. Mally would have the far
mers plant early cotton, for the wee
Wis get worse late in the fall; and
plant the rows far apart, for the weevil
does not like sunlight. Then he would
have the farmer apply his entire force
to hand picking the weevil from the
plants and to constantly spraying them.
Th1s will keep down their number.
Early in the fall he would turn the cat
tie loose in the cotton field, for he finds
that nothing is so effective in getting
rid of weevils as grazing. He would
burn off the land, utterly destroying
grass and cotton plants, and keep it
ploughed all the winter.
Even If all these many precautions
are followed, Prof. Mally does not as
sert that it will get rid of the weevil,
but only that it will mitigate the in
jury done by them. II kept up con-
stantly for years. the pest will be final
~ got under control.
1t is recognized by all that while the
more prudent and industrious farmers
will follow this advice that fhe law
ones will not, and that many farms will
in consequence be destroyed by the
weevils. 1t will he case of the "sur-
vival of the fittest" where the indus
trious farmer prospers and the lazy
farmer fails. Prof. Mally believes that
the cotton farmers will see in time that
unless they pursue this energetic poll
icy they will be ruined.