The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1904-03-09

SPMLMAN TALKS
OF BOIL WEEVIL,
Warns the South Carolina
Farmers.
DANGER In FRONT.
Address to Farmers Of
Rich1and.
explanation OF the Pest aud I,'s
Methods of Destruction--EarIy
Seed Only Escape.

cerning the government farm to be as
taolished near Columbia. Dr.. Spill
man Is the agrostolOgist of the ma
tional department of agriculture. He ad-
dressed the Laurens farmers two wears
ago aud many will remember that he
seemed g. very practical mau. The fol-
lowing is an outline of his speech; so
far as 1T concerned the boil weeyil,
and 1t is just as we'll that Laursns
farmers should have some clear idea
about this pest:
In prefacjng his remarks DR., Spill
man said that agriculture is the basis
OF the wealth of this country. The
products annually amount to over five
billion dollars. Large business con-
Germs employ the best talent obtains a.
Die. 1t Is not so with agriculture
where capital is not massed. If agri-
culture is to have the benefit of scien
titic research the government must
bring the benefit to the farmers.
AT the risk of being considered ex-
travagant, but in all sincerity, he de-
clared that the southern half of the
United States has a climate which in
time will enable 1t to become the lead
ing agricultural section of the world.
The South will lead in agricultural
production when all of her opportuni-
ties are improved.
BOIL WEEVIL HERE TO STAY.
There is not the slightest probability
that The boil weevil will be entirely
eradicated. The government is fully
justified in spending millions of dollars
to meet the invasion Of the boil weevil
and to teach the farmers of this Sec
tion to engage in other kinds of farm
ing.
When Dr.. Spilman took up the ques-
tion of the boil weavil he was asked if
the pest would get as far as South
Carolina. In giving enlightment on
this subject the speaker departed from
his regular line of shought but gave
some very interesting statements.
Most emphatically the boil weevil will
come into South Carolina and will
come to destroy. Wherever it has
made its appearance the country has
been blighted and a bale of cotton
could not be gotten from 25 acres of
the most fertile land. In reply to
question he stated that it would be un-
sale to buy oats or anything else ship
pea from the country infected with the
"eevil which has now gotten into the
southern part of the Indian Territory
ana the western part OF Louisiana.
WHERE TEXAS WAS sHoRTslGHTED.
For long time the government saw
What was coming and endeayored to
get the legislature of Texas to pass a
law preventing any cotton from being
planted on a strip of land 200 miles
wide along the Rio Grande river, for
the pest had made its appearance in
Mexico and was devastating the cotton
crop there. But no precautionary
methods were adopted and now the en-
tire State of Texas is plague-ridden. 1t
has been reported that 10000 farmers
are preparing to leave the State of |
Texas and all on account OF the weeviI, |
which has ruined their crops. He cited |
an instance of farmer in the very
best of circumstances who had been re- !
duced to abject poverty and would |
have suffered but for little poultry
yard which his provident wife was
now THE PEST WORKS.
The boil weevil stays under cover OF |
the woods until in July, said DR.. Spill |
man, and when the midsummer brings
the "forms" of embryo bolls to the |
cotton plant the weevil begins his dep.
relations. The pest is about quarter
of an inch in length and has q bill half |
as long again as himself. With this
bill and its point, which is like cir
cular saw, the bug attacks the tender |
little bolls, and after boring a round
hole into the form deposits an egg
which is covered over with kind of |
wax. The egg in very short time pro-
duces worm which feeds upon the in
terror of the cotton boil until the ver-
min develops into full-hedged boil
weeVil and goes upon the rounds OF at
tacking cotton. DR.. Spillman empha-
sized the fact that in three or four
years it will take South Carolina.
The way to exterminate the ordin.
ary pest is by finding another bug
which will devour the weevil, as was
done in California when the oraup q |
trees were attacked by scale louse |
The common "lady bug" was put on |
the trail Of the scale vermin and i'm a
short time the pest was driven out.
But there is nothing known to science
which will extermipate the boil weevii.
1t cannot be reached with spray, for
the real instrument of destruction is
within the weevll where the poison
would ruin the fibre as well as the
vermin.
The only hope of growing cotton
with any success In an infected terri.
tory is to get very early variety and
plant 1t very early, and even then half
the bolls would be ruined by the wee.
vii.
The price os cotton is driving farm