The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1909-03-05
EXPERIENCE WITH
THE BOIL WFfVIL.
An Open Letter to the Cotton Farmers
Of Arkansas. Louisiana and Mlssls-
sippl.

The U. s. Department of Agriculture
Bureau of Plant Industry, has Just fur
nished for publication the followin,
open letter to the cotton producers o
Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi
which should be read carefully by al
Interested
The boil weevil has invaded YOU
states and will undoubtedly infes
every cotton producing county within {
brief period and, with the hope that oul
experience and observations may be O.
service to you, will state some mate
rial facts that impress me.
When we opened the ONCE Of the
Farmers Cooperative Demonstration
Work in Houston, Texas, in January
1904, for the purpose of demonstrating
to the cotton farmers how cotton crop
could be produced In the presence Of
the weevil, we found the most demoral.
lied condition that has ever come with.
in my observation. 1t was quite general
but some sections were much worse
than others. | particularly recall the
struggle we had along the Fl. Il T. G.
Railway, especially with the light, sandy
loan soils Of Limestone and Robertson
Counties. We found that the cotton
crop had fallen the preceding year to q
fraction of the average product of form
er years, and that the people we're 80
demoralized as result, cotton being
almost their sole cash crop, that they
would scarcely listen to any argument
in favor of producing more cotton. No
language can clearly depict the panic
that existed. In number of the towns
many OF the stores were nailed up. In
large section, one half of the cotton
farms had been abandoned and on the
remaining farms people were trying to
diversity and find something that would
be fairly probable, without planting
cotton. Over quite section it was
found necessary to supply cotton seed
and other seeds for planting, to save the
situation. i soon learned, however,
that the most disastrous factor in the
problem was the alarm and the loss of
all confidence on the part of the banks
and merchants. The sudden withdrawal
of advances made it impossible to culti-
vate large portion of the land in cot
ton because they could not pay the
labor. The labor left and many OF the
small farmers left for more prosperous
sections. In some way ID had become
the current belief that, while possibly a
cotton crop might be made in the dry
and prairie sections, that just as
soon as the weevil struck the wooded
sections of East Texas where the con-
ditions were ideal for hi bernation, so
many of the weevils would survive the
winter that it would be impossible to
make crop, especially as Eastern Tex
as has larger rainfall than the Western
prairies. 1t was useless to argue the
matter; they thoroughly believed it and
it required all the influence we could
bring to bear to induce them to plant
and manage their cotton crop according
to our directions. To the credit of the
and bankers let it be said
that they generally rallied to our sup
port and did extend, at our solicitation,
considerable aid to the farmers. The
farmers were urged to live as much as
possible on the products of the farm
and to raise Irish potatoes, melons and
other early maturing crops for market
to help pay current expenses. This was
done. We were also obliged to intro
duce an earlier and better variety OF
cotton with which we could more sue
combat the weevil. Our plans
worked exceedingly well and by the fall
Of 1904 confidence was entirely restored
and farmers found that they had made
more money than usual In single year
because they lived on the products Of
their farms and within their current in
comes. They owed very little and had
made pretty fair crop. The total cot
ton product in Limestone County in 1908
was 18,400 bales; in 1904. the year we
work, it was al 800 bales; In
906 it was 1880 bales; in 1908, while
'ull reports are not in, it will probably
exceed ii, 900 bales. or course between
,hese years there were some bad crop
'ears, but even In the bad crop years it
lid not fall anywhere near the level OF
9O3. This is only sample Of what has
occurred rs the weevil advanced east
yard through the Timber Belt Of Texas
The worst thing we have had to con
end against was the panic because 1t 1
affected capital and cut oif {
he sinews Of war so that the people I
ould not cultivate as much land as be- /
ore. Then, there are somo people who 9
re naturally alarmist and they became
'usy 10 every county which we entered. I
Will take Harrison County. on the ex- I
rene eastern border Of Texas, where q
he annual rainfall averages about nifty d
nches. The boil weevil struck this G
ection Ia 1905, but too late TO seriously d
amsge that crop. In 1907 the panic d
,as 70 great that many Of the Ieading '
lrmers did not believe that ! crop a
oaId b msls and they ~ their help !
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