The Tupelo journal., 1904-06-03
FARMERAND PLANTER.
THE NEW BOIL WEEVIL.
How Poison Is Applied and the HELP
1t VIII Give in Destroying
the Pest

1t Will Give Ia D~eStrOy1nx
the Pest.
The boil weevil is now being poison
ed successfully and cheaply by farmers
in Fayette and Caldwell counties. r.
w. Marston, of Louisiana, the man who
first used Paris green in this country
to kill the army worm, is leading in the
work. Poisoned cotton has no live
weevil left on it, but there are dead
ones found under it.
Poisoning is simple. Paris green Of
guaranteed purity is put in a sack
made of eight ounce osnabnrg, and
this sack tied to a stick, is shaken owe
the young cotton having weevil on it.
1t must lie done when the wind is not
blowing. The weevils are hungry for
fresh food after a winter of fasting
and they feed upon the tender bud"
and the stems of young leaves until
the squares come. These leaf parts
are easily busted with poison and will
kill the weevils within "a hours after
eating. We watched, under a micro
scope, a weevil husily gouging a
trench with his DILL. He was working
on a tender leaf stem and bent to the
work most earnestly, succeeding in
cutting a hole one-half inch long and
one sixteenth deep n wide. Dead
weevils may continue to be found for
four of six days after the cotton has
hmm nr0norlu nOiCnnad Tho pOttnn
should be freshly poisoned every week
or ~oftener, until fresh weevils quit
coming to the cotton or the plants be-
gin to form squares. When the squares
begin to form, poison will have little or
no effect.
Apply enough green to show plainly
on the foliage. 1t should be put on
when no wind is blowing. Poisoning
early in the season means that the
farmers can reduce the winter broods
now coming from their hiding places,
and protect cotton to a large extent.
This adds a new step to the tested
cultural methods" 1t may entirely
take the place of picking up squares or
picking off the weevil which has proved
SO expensive. Early poisoning will en-
able the cotton to mature ahead OF the
great swarm OF late summer weevils
especially if given thorough midsum-
mer cultivation. Paris green may not
be the best poison, hut it is certainly
reliable. The entire method is cheap
and farmers can put it into use at
once. On small cotton a half pound of
Paris green per acre is sufficient. This
does not solve the bell weevil problem,
but it will help to solve it.
With long winters in north Texas
and Paris green to kill a part Of the
first crop appearing in spring, we have
a new opportunity to fight the weevils
and run them u of north Texas.
Cotton growers must wake up to this
new situation and make the fight. The
United States government appropTia.-
ed a quarter Of a million dollars with
which to fight the weevil. The gov
eminent agents are actively at work.
unless intelligent farmers and business
men give the state and national ex-
perts their cordial cooperation.
When the weevil reaches the Red
river counties it will go straight
through the Arkansas and Louisiana
valleys to the Mississippi cotton valley
lands, according to the views of all
experts. Here the cotton crop OF tue
south hangs by a thread. The states
east of us are interested in this fight
to crowd back the weevil, from north
Texas. as much or more than from
east Texas, and will lend us their sup
port. if need be. with the United States
department Of agriculture.
County meetings should be held in
Texas at once and these facts dis
cussed. In these mass meetings new
facts about poiSonS and blOtting out
weevil on freshly-infested farms can
be fully discussed. Resolutions call
ing on Secretary Wilson for the help
of the United States department OF ag-
riculture can be adopted, carrying as
of intelligent cooperation be-
tween the people and the government
officials. Call the Texas legislature in
special session, as did Louisiana, if
need be. Certainly this is the first OPP
portunity to check the northwarc
march of the weevil. Will our people
fight the pest?
Consider these facts: Cd In north
Texas the winters are colder and
longer, resulting in fewer generations
of new weevils in summer and a muci
smaller crop of weevils that come
through the winter; (2) the weevil has
been noticeably checked in his travels
northward for two years, a statement
to which DR.. Hunter assents: (3) by
use of poison we can further reduce the
north Texas hibernated weevil; a.
Louisiana has e%radicated the weevii
from two parishes; (5) the Red river
valley of Texas, if once infested by the
weevel, its introduction into Louisiana
and Mississippi will be soon accom-
fplished by natural agencies.-TeXas
r0--. -~l Da~o