The Semi-weekly leader. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1905-1941, 1908-10-21
ABOUT THE BOIL NEEvIL.
Some Interesting Statements by Far.
mers Of Louisiana.

weevil did for him, says:
II saw from Town Talk that
your readers are getting very much
interested regarding boil weevils,
and if you will allow me space in
your valuable paper, / will give
your readers a little of my exper-
ience with the weevils during the
year of 1907, which thoroughly con-
Ivinced me that burning squares,
planting early, using Paris green
and turpentine is just throwing
away money and time, as | gave
every one fair test; also breaking
land in the winter. The weevils
struck me the first of September,
1906, and / made no more cotton
after that time, but had a good
crop already made.
| gathered 900 bales; the next year,
which was 1907, ] planted about
the same amount of land in cotton
and made 100 bales. and what did
make made it on quick growth
sandy land. To give you some
idea of the stiff land in 1906, I had
a field Of % acres of fine stiff land
that made % good bales, and in
1907 it only made 2 1-2 bales this
is way above an average for stiff
land. ! think a good average for
1907 for stiff land was a bale to ten
acres, so will say to those interest
ed in growing cotton that my adj
vice is to let your mixed and stiff
lands grow in weeds instead of
cotton as | am fully convinced that
you will have more dollars at the.
end of the year than you would
have had had you planted in cotton.
My home now is Alexandria, La,
but my experience with the weevils
was 80 miles above here, on Red
river, where the lands are just as
fine as anywhere on the river from
the head to the mouth; SO my ad-
vice is to plant your lands in some
thing else But as / had raised
cotton all my life (and am now As
years old) can't give you any views
on any other crop, but if you have
barrels of money just plant cotton
extensively and the weevils will eat
it all up as they did mine. =
Mr.. R. is not comforting. But
he gives in his actual experience,
and that is what is needed now.
mime days spent in the Mexican
boil weevil territory of Texas and
Louisiana" by ]. A. Davenport,
enables the Mer Rouge Democrat
to give out the following statement:
The trip was made purely for in
formation that would probably en-
able the Davenport store to success
fully conduct a mercantile business
in Moreehouse parish, that will from
this time on, be set down and treat
ede as "boll weevil territory"
He visited Dallas, then Fort
Worth, Waco, Yoakum and Hous-
ton. In the last three named places
the weevils have been during the
last fourteen years, and are there
to stay and yet the people are to-
day ordinarily, more prosperous
than before the weevil came, and
the farm lands sell for and COM
mand higher prices than any lands
have ever sold for in Morehouse
parish. In all sections, when the
weevils first came into the farms,
as a rule, the merchants became
| heavily embarrassed trying to help
men grow cotton and following the
methods of former years. Farmers
lost money, laborers became dissat-
isfied and moved away. But neces-
sity and hard luck caused land
owners to Diversity crops and raise
at home things and crops that they
has seen paying other men in other
sections to grow for them, and to
cut down expenses in the home and
on the farm, until the cost of liv-
ing had been reduced to mini
mum. Next, seed of early matur-
Il ing varieties of cotton were intro
duced. earlier planting of cotton,
thorough preparation of land,
pushing the growth of cotton by
the use of fertilizers on lands re-
quiring fertilizer, and thorough
and rapid cultivation. all these to-
gether, solved the problem that cot
ton can be grown in a boil Weevil
section. All Texas recommends
planting the dwarf varieties, clus-
ter cottons, that never grow large
stalks. Large growing cotton
furnishes shade and protection to
weevils. The hot sunshine destroys
the weevil. Almost all farmers in
Texas practice the pulling up and
burning of stalks and picking up
infected squares. TO the mer-
chants, planters on a large scale,
small farmers and field laborers,
we appeal to all these not to get
discouraged. The test, the hard
struggle, will be over after about
two years To reach prosperity
merchants must restrict the line Of
Ecredit and only to hard working
and deserving persons, and give no
aid or help by attempting to help
men who have never tried to help
themselves. Let the worthless la
Dor go from the parish, and the
country will be the better off after
they have gone.
Reports from the farming dis