The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1904-11-19
FARM INSTRUCTIONS.
Fan Preparations OF Land for Spring
Planting-Directions for Eradica-
ting the Boil Weeyi1.

dustry of the United States depart
ment of agriculture, is sending out the
following bulletin relative to fall prep
arations Of land for spring planting
The attention of farmers should be
called to three important changes in
agricultural conditions:
1. Marked climatic changes since
the settlement of the southern states
notably less regularity in the rainfall
and greater extremes in the tempera-
ture.
2. A rapid decline in the fertility Of
the soil.
8. A remarkable increase in insect
enemies Of the farms.
This change il agricultural condi-
tons requires radical change ia the
methods Of farming, and the farmer
who does not move along progressive
lines will soon conclude that farming
does noe pay.
One of the most important lines of
work to be done in making cotton
under boil weevil conditions, is the
destruction of the cotton stalks in the
fall while they are green, followed by
breaking the land a little deeper
than usual. If the stalks are left grow
ing in the field, weevils will continue
to multiply until winter, and the num-
Der of weevils going into winter
quarters for Information will be large.
Destroy the stalks entirely, with all
trash, burrs and damaged bolls early
in the fall while yet green, and you
will certainly cut down the number of
weevils that 60 into winter quarters.
Turning stock into the field in large
numbers is one method Of destruction,
and helps mainly by shortening the
food supply for the weevils. If fol-
lowed up by very deep fat breaking
Of the land ia November or December,
it is likely that a great many Weevils
will be destroyed.
Burning the cotton plants while still
growing, and while the weevils are
still at work on them, is the safest
plan and if properly done will destroy
thousands of weevils. Just as soon
as the cotton is picked, run vertical
cutter diagonally under the stalks in
each row, turning them out uniformly
to one side, and let them lie until dry
enough to burn readily. Leave stand
ing every fifth row SO that the Weevils
may move from the dead cotton to the
rows left standing. AS soon as the
turned out stalks are dry enough to
burn, pile them up over the green rows
and burn them. If necessary use Beau
mont oil to insure complete burning.
If you have no vertical cutter use
ordinary turning pillow. Another plan
is, considering three rows: turn the
outside rows toward the middle one
I'D let the turned-out rows dry, bunch
ing the dead stalks closely against the
live ones of the middle row. Use
Beaumont oil and burn. A third
method is to turn out the entire crop
in the or binary way, pile the stalks
while still green and nse Beaumont
oil in burning. The essential feature
of this plan is to destroy the stalks
while green. If the stalks are turned.
out and allowed to dry before piling,
most of the adult weevils will seek
winter quarters elsewhere and thus
escape destruction by the later burn
ing,
Other plans, and possibly better,
may suggest themselves to you. The
point is to destroy the weevils by
burning. If you fail in this it is
largely time and money thrown away
to burn the stalks, as the vegetable
matter burned would be of great value
as hunrus and OF some value as fertili-
ger if turned under. The cleaning of
Of land, by burning each year, through
q series Of years, would beyond ques-
ton damage the land, and we cannot
recommend it unless direct destruction
of the weevils can be accomplished in
return. We recognize that enough
boil weevils may be wintered over by
a general failure to burn stalks early
in the fall to jeopardize the cotton
crop the ensuing year. It is important
to destroy as many weevils as posi-
BILE by this early fall burning.
1t is not, as general practice, adj
visable to break in the fall more than
one or two inches deeper than Gus
tomary, for the reason that it will turn
up too much crude soil at once.
Breaking as above outlined may
even be detrimental unless followed
by the harrow, clod-
or roller to pulverize the sur
face soil to conserve moisture. The
soil rapidly loses its moisture when
The clods from the pillow remain IN
crushed and the farmer thus fails to
secure the best results of tillage, and /
in dry sections it, may cause the loss
M crop.
One OF the most important features
Of the cultural method advocated by
the Bureau of Plant Industry is rota-
tion of crops. Consecutive single crop
constantly reduces the fertil-
ity and ultimately leads to poverty of
soil. Under boil weevi1 conditions.
rotation of crops, especially planting
cotton after corn aud cow-peas every