The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-08-08
PROBLEMS OF THE BLACK
 BELTAND HOW THEY ARE MET

another fact equally as significant and aA ominous as 1t was significant was the declaration by Dr. s. D. Hunter, the greatest living expert on the boil weevfl that in three years the boil weevil would be feeding on the cotton fields of Perry. No human agency could stop it. The man who said that is the man who has been in charge or the fight, in which the Federal govern mentSis spending millions dollars for the suppression of the greatest evil that has threatened, the cotton crop since Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin.
 pr. Hunters talk was in sense discouraging, but 1t was frank and carried conviction to every nearer. He did not attempt to claim credit for any victory, which he and the govern ment had won. The ravages of the boil weevil could be limited a par tial crop could be raised. But the weevi1S was coming and it was com ing to stay. The boil weevfl originat- ed in Mexico and in some of the cot ton fields of that State it had been a pest and menace. for seventy years.
 The boil weevil, so the scientist told the assembled farmers under the old oaks of the Munford plantation. ate nothing but cotton. If 1t had no cot ton squares and young bolls to eat il would starve to death. It would be possible to destroy the boil weevil fl no cotton whatever was raised in the South during the yearA But that plan was obviously impossible. Moreover after that one year, the poll weevil would again start over from Mexico and make his way as he was now doins and after another term of years. cot ton growing would again nave 10 pc suspended for year.
 At one time Dr., Hunter said. it would have been possible to have stopped the ravages of the boil weevil and his ad- vance, by an expenditure Of $1o0,0oo' This could have been used to pay the farmers of small strip of land in Tex as not to grow any cotton for one year But that time has passed and although the government is now willing to spend many hundreds of thousands of dollars his costly march across the southern cotton fields can not be stopped.
 The Best Prepared Community.
 Uniontown, in the opinion of Dr. Hunter was the best prepared com munity in the South to fight the pro- gress of the boil weevil. Professor Spillman said the same thing. Why?
 It is prepared in the first place be- cause alfalfa is established there. Cot ton has not been banished from the fafms and plantations about Union town, but cotton has been relagated to it's proper place. It is no longer an aribitary sovereign; 1t no longer rules tyrannically, demanding every defer ence and consideration. It Is con yenient money crop. but the farmers and plantations are prospertng as mucf now from alfalfa and other hay as they are from anything else. And the experts said that in a few years what is now one of the richest and best grass crop countries of the South would inevitably become one of the richest cattle sections south of the Ohio.
 In the second place Dr. Hunter said that Uniontown was especially wei qualified to fight the boil weevil be. cause the country was not heavily tim bered. Alexandria, La., situated IT country where much timber still stand. suffered perhaps more from the rav- ages Of the cotton destroying insec' than any other section which had beer attacked. A few years ago before tho coming of the boll weevil Alexandria marketed between 10000 and 50,0OS bales. In four years, the boil weevi so reduced the crop that Alexandria last year osly received 5000 bales, pr Hunter said that warehouse men sait that this year the town would perhaps not receive 300 bales. Timber furn' ishes protections-@ to the boil weevili during the winter The weevils bur row under the leaves of the trees and they dig into the tree bark, to hiber- nate and fly out again when they arc warmed to life by the spring sun.
 Uniontown with its new schemes oi