The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1908-09-18
THE BLIGHT OF THE
COTTON PROSPECT.
Reports From Over the State Are
Causing Serious Concern.

That the deterioration Of the cotto
crop in Mississippi within the past tw
weeks is the heaviest this state ha
ever experienced within an equa
period is the tenor of reports being re
ceived from all sections, says the Jack
son News OF the 18th inst.
Usually deterioration reports in Sep
tcmber are confined to few communi
ties. Where the crop is very bad Il
one section the poor prospect is at leas
balanced by good reports from othel
sections, bat this is not the case thi,
year. Reports Of deterioration are
general, and the estimates vary all the
way from twenty to fifty per cent.
Veteran planters declare that they
never saw the cotton fall away with
such astonishing rapidity, and within
so short a period. The general appear
ance of the plant Is very deceptive. Ii
looks large, healthy, and well-limbed,
but closer examination shows a marked
shortage of blooms, squares and bolls.
Rust and blight seem to be the chief
ailments, and these destrustive ele-
ments, together with the boil weevil
and the boil worm, have played havoc
with prospects that, thirty days ago,
were the best Mississippi had ever ey-
perienced.
1t Is customary, of course, for the
farmers to send in pessimistic reports
at the beginning of the picking season,
aud they are always taken with lib
eral pinch of salt, but this year the dis
couraging reports undoubtedly have
foundation in fact. Since the plant has
taken on such large and weedy
growth, there is very little hope Of a
top crop, and the farmers now confront
the prospect of damage by equinoxial
storms or early frosts, which adds
greatly to their feeling OF pessimism.
As a rule, when crops are poor in the
hills the delta reports fair prospect,
but this season the disappointment pre-
walls both in the hills and the delta.
The farmers who are financially able TO
do so are determined to hold what little
cotton they make at all haz9rTs~ !Nna
U4yipssu ssutlb thai bat56ge 81 THE conditions
become general, and market opinions
formed on car window observations are
supplauted by reports based on actual
of the fields.
A movement has been placed on foot
among the farmers in that section of
southeast Mississippi infested by the
Mexican boil weevil to plant minimum
cotton acreage next year, and devote
the major portion of tillable land to
corn, oats, forage crops, and truck pro-
du cts.
The movement has the backing OF the
Farmers Union and is commended by
the special agents OF the United States
department of agriculture who are en-
ploytd in that section Of the state, and
who hold that rotation Of crops is i'm
as one of the measures for the
Of the pest.
Some of the farmers are so thoroughly
to abandon cotton growing
that they are already making arrange
ments with their labOrers and tenants
on new basis for the next crop year.
The weevi has played havoc with the
crop in the counties of Jefferson, Amite,
Adams, Wilkinson and Franklin, and it
is predicted with confidence that be-
fore the end Of the present month 1t
will enter the counties OF Kinds, Lin
coin, Pike and Copiah. Fields have been
devastated, and the farmers have
picked about all the cotton they will be
able to make this year.