The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1904-10-07


ture the report of Special Agent w. D..
Hunter, who has charge Of the eXper-
mental work with the Mexican boil
Weeyil in Texas. He states the sub
ject is one Of the very greatest i'm
pOCtance to the cotton interests In the
South, namely, control Of the boil
Weevil in cotton seed and in ginner-
les; and on account OF the fact that
the ginning season is now at its height
and that the farmers in Texas and
Louisiana will sOol be obtaining seed
for planting purposes. Special Agent
Hunter states, in opening his report,
that the extent to which cotton seed
and ginneries are factors in the dis
semination of the boil wecVii has not
been realized generally. During the
present season, he writes, the Bureau
Of Entomology has paid particular at
tention to this matter and has demon
strated that ginneries are the most i'm
porta1t single factors in the dissemin-
ating the pest, at least In regions
where the cotton fields are somewhat
isolated. Spreading of the insect by
fight, aided by the wind, seems to be
Of little Importance compared with
this artificial agency. The co-opera-
ton Of this department with the Louis
lana crop pest commission, which is
engaged in an attempt to prevent the
further entrance of the WCevil into
that state, has given many opportuni'
ties for determining the exact means
whereby weevils reach new regions
At the present time this work has led
to the conclusion that if it were posi-
BILE to control the pest at gins, 1t
might be possible to greatly retard its
present rate of spreading, but that
without any such means Of control
there is great doubt about the feast
bility of an attempt to check its
spread, unless, indeed, measures are
taken to prohibit in uninfested local.
ties the ginning of cotton from in
tested regions.
Early in the season of 1908 i've
trained men connected with this Du-
reau were stationed in the Western
parishes of Louisiana. The infested
fields have been determined very care
fully, and a special study has been
made of the means by which they be-
came infested. 1t was soon found thai
Texas cotton growers along the Sa-
bine river were accustomed to gin
ming their cotton in Louisiana. Narl-
Gus localities in the eastern tier OF
counties in Texas have been infested
for nearly two years. One farmer, by
bringing seed cotton from Texas to
Louisiana gins, would cause those
gins to become infested. From
these infested gins the spread OF the
weeyil has been traced carefully. In
some cases customers of an infested
gin changed to an uninfested one dur
ing the season, and thus carried wee
wills with them. Instances have also
been recorded where farmers collect
ed seed from uninfested cotton on
wagon sheets at gin where infested
cotton had also been ginned. In these
cases no infestation has been attrlD-
utable to the seed so collected. In
one case, however, a farmer known
to have collected the seed on a sheet
In the way described, and during the
present season it was found that the
only field on his farm where the wee
vii is found was that to which he had
hauled bulk seed for fertilizer from
the same gin at which he had so care
fully guarded his cotton seed.
One farmer in Calcasieu parish gin.
ned his cotton partly at an infested
and partly at an unintested gin. 1t
has been found that the weevils upon
his plantation occur only in the field
grown from seed brought from the in
tested gin.
In a sparsely settled country, like
the western portion of Calcasieu Par,
ish, where the cotton fields are small
and the gins consequently located at
considerable distance from one an
other. the weevil has been carried
astonishingly long distances. Prof.
H. A. Morgan, secretary of the Loulsl-
ana Crop Pest Commission, has fur
nished the writer with many interest
ing examples of this. In one case 1t
has been ascertained that a farmer in
the nelghborhood of Jerryville trans
ported the pest for sixteen miles, thus
establishing an isolated infestation.
That the occurrence Of the pest in
this locality was not due to its being
blown by the wind is demonstrated by
the fact that no other cotton fields in
the neighborhood are infested, the
neighbors having ginned their cottoa
outside Of the infested territory.
In Shelby county, Tennessee, a doz-
en- farmers procured seed of desira'
be variety of cotton, which, though
grown in the immediate uninfested ter
ritory, has been ginned further west,
h n