The Lafayette advertiser. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], La.) 1865-19??, 1904-02-17
BIRDS DESTROY THE BOIL
WEEVlL.

Inc LOUISIANA Dol VccNH SoI1I
mission has established it's head
quarters at Shreveport and will
begin an active campaign against
the boil weevil. Mr.. Marsden
and Prof. Morgan are now in Sa-
bine parish, where the weevil is
known to exist, making Observa-
tons and trying to develop a
plan Of campaign. The principal
line of attack will be that of
quarantine. There is, however,
another plan which seemingly
has not received the Importance
which it deserves, an that is to
protect the birds and let them
aid the planters, which they can
and will do effectively, as is
testified by the following ex-
tracts from Texas papers,:
The blackbirds are eating the boil
weevils. Mr.. V. J. HUTCHINSON IS in
the city from Fitzgerald, and reports
that his son killed a blackbird, in the
craw of which were twenty-One boil
weevils. some still alive. He thinks
it is a good idea to encourage the
blackbirds to feed in the cotton fields.
Palestine Herald From the Houston
Post of Nov. Is, 1903.
Mrs. S. r. Harris, member of the
Audubon Society of Louisiana, who
recently visited friends in Waco, said
of birds as insect destroyers:
"Since coming to Texas, l have
listened to talk and read articles on
the cotton boil weevil. 1 have read
learned treatises on destroying these
pests, and it has surprised me not a
little that only a few writer's mention
birds as the surest protection against
all sorts of insects. They tell the
farmer to rake together and burn
cotton stalks and weeds. Some advise
the planters to pick the weevil from
the cotton with their fingers and en-
plOy laborers for that purpose. l
have no doubt burning stalks and
weeds is a good plan, and perhaps it
may pay to employ hands to go over
the cotton on q still hunt for bugs.
"As to the latter plan, I would bet
my money, if l were in the betting
line, on a flock of ten yellow-breasted
larks catching more weevils in an
hour than one hundred hands would
catch in q day. Most birds catch
insects. Some live on them: others
feed them to their nestlings, but do
not eat them to any great extent. The
yellOw-breasted field lark is the
champion weevil catcher of the world.
l paid a negro boy Is cents for three
larks he had just killed in a cotton
patch, and from their craws l ex-
tracted eighty-seven ~weevils, some of
which were not yet dead. These birds
were slain in the act OF doing the
owner Of this cotton an estimable
service.
"The field lark is not, properly
speaking, an edible bird. He is too
lean for the table, but as an accom-
plished jnsecticide he is notorious;
and yet cotton growers permit them to
be shot. What is worse still, the
farmers take part in cruelty and wan
tonly staying their feathered bene-
factors with their own hands. The
newspapers, universities, public
schools and pulpits should, one and
all, join in q crusade against bird
Staying. Waco Tribune From the
Mart Herald, McClennan County.
Texas, Dec. Is, 1902.
Mr.. Maddox, who lives out in the
Phair section, has been farming there
some time, and generally makes a
good crop. he is q man capable of
Judging, and does things in q practi-
cal way. Mr.. Maddox says that he
made this season fully half q bale to
the acre, and it is altogether due to
the blackbirds and quail. He has
several coveys Of quail in his field,
and refuses to allow hunters to modest
them. He has watched them and has
seen them jump on the stalk and pick
on the weevil. The same thing applied
to the blackbird, and between the two
he was permitted to make : crop. He
thinks the law protesting these birds
Is . very wise one.-velssc0 World
IN San Antonio Express. Nov. 12. 1909.