Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-13
TO KILL THE BOIL wEEvIL PEST.
Col. Brown Suggests Stop Staying the
Birds

A dispatch from New York last night
says: Col. Isaac w. Brown, the hoosier
S ,hoolmaster whose philosophy is summed
up in 1.-The science. Every bird has its
bug" and who was sent to Texas by Miss
Helen Gould to see If he could apply his
philosophy practically in doing away with
the boil weevil scourge, returned to New
York yesterday. having made his report to
Miss Gould at her country home. at Rox-
Dury, N. Y.
His four days Investigation in the terri
tory south of Dallas, he said, could sug-
gest to him no better remedy for the cotton
curse than to let the birds alone. The
spread of the weevil from Mexico and its
present northerly progress in Texas he
attributes directly to the killing of birds
ordained by natures laws to destroy the
pest If there had been a normal supply of
such birds fifty years ago and since In
Mexico, he said there wouldn't be single
cotton boil weevil in Texas today.
Col. Brown said that he couldn't do much
in four days toward finding out for what
bird the boil weevi- is the choicest meal
ITO find out what | wanted to know, he
said, Il would have to chum with the DOH
weevil for six months. / would have 10
watch it in the field; watch it go into hiber-
nation and come out; find out where there
are birds that destroy it, and where there
are none and make comparisons.
Col Brown according to his own descr1p-
ton of himself, is "a crusader who goes
about with a smile instead of a Ratchet"
and he thinks that If the killing of the pest
destroying birds in Texas be prohibited,
and that if efforts be made to attract such
birds to spots where the boil weev1l Is thick
est, the plague naturally will come to
stop. He was assured, he said. that the
idea will be brought to the attenNon OF tne
state legislature.
Just let them what the birds can
do he said 1.-THE boil weevil Is the nat
ural food of ground scavenging birds-the
Quail, the bob white, the meadow lark ana
the dove, which are just the birds that are
hunted most in Texas. The best of the
scavengers is the quail, which also Is the
most prolific. In one year one pair OF
Quail will rear from thirty to forty young.
You see, If these birds were left to multiply
of themselves what formidable army tnat
would ba to arrest the progress of the cot
ton pest.
II was told in Texas that there was a
shotgun for every bird. The dove law ex-
pired on September /. and l was down
there on September and 3. In the helds
dove next to the quail, Is the most vaiua-
he Of ground scavenging birds. In the win
fer hunters come down from the north ana
thew kill thousands of all sorts OF plros:
The nest is the Mexican cotton Doll weeVii
ard owing to the slaughter of birds during
the last three years. It has spread hhto
Texas during that time.
The philosophy that every bro mas us
rrey Is applicable everywhere, Col Brown
saws The ant. he, explained, Is a scourge
in many sections, but one flicker, or req
breasted woodpecker, will eat 5000 or them
for a meal. All one has to do Is to pick up
niece of rotten tree near the af1icteo
spot The flicker will dig home IN II ana
eat ants for a living