The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1903-08-10
REMEDY is FOUND
FOR BOIL WEEYlL
Governme mt Expert Discovers Plant
That Will Resist Ravages
of the Pest

Washin gton, D. C.-The government
may claim the reward of $50,O0t
whic. has been offered by the cover
nor Of Texas for remedy which will
check the ravages of the boil weevil
which is destroying the cotton crops
in the southwest. Thousands of acre;
| it is reported have already succumbeC
and the plague, which began in the
fields ful Their north and east, has
worked its way to Texas, and is rap
idly devastating the state.
Albert H. Woods, head patholOgis1
Of the plant breeding bureau of the de
partment of agriculture says he is con
WINGED that the problem has beer
solved. DR.. Herbert j. Weber has
been working for three years on this
matter Of the boil weevil, and he will
soon be ready to make formal an
nouncement of his discoveries. AL
other remedies having failed, DR.. Web
Der decided that the only recourse
was to breed or discover variety OF
cotton which should be resistant to the
boil weevil. He has been at work
breeding and experimenting with diff
ferent varieties, making careful Sc
lectiCns and testing the results under
all possible circumstances, and he is
convinced that he will soon have the
glad news for cotton growers.
The department. may not insist up
on the reward which has been offered
although the secretary Of agriculture
is inclined to collect the $4,000 and
turn it into the public treasury. DR..
Weber. however, although he has
done the work, will not claim the re-
ward. Like other specialists in the
employ Of the government, he is
bound in honor to turn over TO the
government all the beneficial results
!. One Of Natures Secrets.
I: The secret of breeding variety of
plant which will resist certain pests
and diseases is one which is not dis
:clOsed by the man who did it. The
power Of which the expert makes use
is really one Of natures secrets
Whence it comics, or why, is a mys-
terry which never has been solved. The
different plants. under the micro
scope, and examined in all other ways
are to all Appearances identical.
But experience shows that one Of
the plants has the power TO grow in
field which has been devastated by
the pest. by the boil weevil for exam
pie, and never be attacked by it. With
death and devastation ON all sides,
with all its environments the same,
this plant will stand up and hurl de-
fance at the disease Or animal which
causes the destruction. 1t has in it.
self some mysterious power which
keeps it immune.
The scientists have theory which
Is being examined tentatively as an
explanation of this immunity Of the
resistant plant namely, that there
are certain anti-toxin compounds de-
veloped in the plant which makes it
immune. The plant. in other words,
becomes as II vaccinated or as if it
had been through an attack of the
disease, and is now immune, for rea-
sons are supposed to make people i'm
mune who have had smallpox or yell
low fever But the plant has the for
tunate faculty of transmitting its inn
munity to its offspring. This is the
foundation of the work of the experts
in evolving a resistant strain; the in
dividual plants which have survived
in a field ravaged by the pest are care
fully selected, and set apart by them
selves as the parents Of acrop OF seed
grown carefully and in isolation.
Other Crops Are Grown.
From this seed other crops are
grown under conditions where they
will be exposed 10 the pest. and these
survivors are again made the parents
Of new strains. Thus, finally, by Sc
lection, strains are evolved which,
when grown beside a field of cotton
ravaged by the boil weevil, will re-
main quite untouched.
The cotton planters will probably
have to destroy all their present
stock, replacing itby stock obtained
from the government. Several years
will be required to get the new stock
substituted in place of the Old. But
the trouble will amply repay the
planter, who is now threatened with
ruin from a pest which there appears
to be no successful way to combat.
The governments bureau of plant
industry has shown cotton growers
what it can do to save them from a
pest, in the case of the rOot-rot dis
ease which struck the sea island cot
ton district about five years ago. This
district is off the coast of the CAROLYN
as in islands Of the Atlantic, and the
cotton produced is world-famOus.
The plantations, before this plague
arrived, were worth $500 an acre. In
about eighteen months the land had
dropped to SO an acre and could not
find purchasers at that. The planters
believed that the sea island industry
was doomed.
But Weber and Woods came to
the rescue with a variety of sea island
which they discovered, and which
they demonstrated was resistant to
root-rot. The planters hastened to
destroy all the old stock, and got new
resistant stock from the department.
In four years the new strain had re-
placed the old on all plantations, full
crops were agai raised, and the land
was once more $500 an acre.