Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1905-12-17
If the Boil WeeVil Should
 Invade Arkansas


threaten any form of vegetable lite. there is found another member of the same family, perhaps. of a predaceoaS nature to prey upon the pest, thus holding it in check. This natura!!v causes the vegetarian to seek other localities to escape it's natural enemy, and thus it spreads over foreaas ash countries. Thus it was that tse c'''- ton boil weevil was forced gradually to emierate northward from it's tropl- cal home and so the insect fo'ilid It's wav through Mexico into the teo States Free from the depredatlons of ifs enemy in it's original hone, 1t was tere permitted to live, gro" 2no mutt; ply at will, unchecked oy any adverse conditions. The very appear ance of the cotton boil weevil on Tex as soil five years ago denoted a cause somewhere. and the agricultural ae- partment at once set about to ind the cause, in the hope that it might furnish the remedy for tee evf in this country. Working on this the ory, systematic effort was set on foot to locate the insects original home.
 That this theory and it's practical application are not new to the agri- cultural department is shown by two notable instances that occurred dur ing the last quarter of century. When the fluted scale made it's ap- pearance in California in some n:ys- terious manner several years ago. threatening to devastate the entire fruit crop of the country, the depart ment set about to discover if pos sible, the original hone of the beetle, in the hope of finding the cause that held it in check there. Their efforts were finally successful in locating it's home in Australia. where trua to the theory upon winch the investigations were being conducted predaceous insect was found to prey upon and control the noxious one The other case was that of the San Jose scale, which appears pract' cally all over the United States. The departmen. succeeded in tracing it's origin back to the interior of China, and it also is now controlled by predaceous in. sect imported successfully from 'ts home
 In this connection it would be well to note that this idea is an American one in its practical application. Sincc t has been worked out so successfully in several cases in this country many foreign countries have adopted it, and now have ag7nts trav- cling throughout the world 10 obtain parasites or predaceous insects for importation.
 What would the boil weeyli to for Arkansas?
 There is no way of accn 'ale:y ,::i- naing the real damage al. eady in ;llcted upon the southern olau'...s ard upon the south in general by the de. vastation wrought by this little bug In Arkansas. where cond tions are 90 much different from those prevalent in Texas it would be difficult to make any reliable prediction as to what would be the result of the weevil's invasion of the state. Taking Texas as a basis of our estimates. however. we would be appalled, at the results. For instance. in 1904. MT. w. D. Hun. ter, who has charge of the agricultur- al departments chronological experi- ments in Texas. estimated that in ten counties alone in the state of Texas. the amount of damage done the cot ton crop was fully 5S per cent de- crease in the production of the staple due exclusively to the ravages of th's pest. In 1904 1t was estimated that s49.000.OOO worth of cotton was destroyed by the weevil in Texas.
 If the weevils invasion of Arkan- sas meant corresponding decrease in the cotton production of this state, it were we'll, indeed, to feel alarm ov- CT the situation, pec'ally in this section of the state, where the staple is the sole means of support of many thousands of families. Were the weevil to reduce Arkansas rroduc- tion the same percentage as that of Texas it would mean that instead of raising 905,000 bales. as last year, we would raise but 3SO,10O. It means that the crop of Jefferson oe''tY. would be reduced to 16.S0O, whereas