Los Angeles herald., 1910-11-15
PEANUT PLANTING
MAY SAVE cotton
New Suggestion Interests Farm
ers in Texas, Where Crops
Suffer from Insects
Especial to The HERALD

SAN ANTONIO. Texas, Nov IA
Among the most recent suggestions for
the elimination of the boil .weevil Is
the planting of peanuts. This Is but
one of the hundred or more suggestions
that have been made during the last
three years, but it Is becoming increas-
ingly apparent that no campaign
against the boil weevll which calls for
the planting of any other crop besides
cotton will be generally adopted
throughout the south. This is not due
to the ignorance of the southern plant
ers The cause for this antipathy TO
any such means of fighting the boil
Weeyil can be seen in the daily reports
of any newspaper With cotton prices
as they now are, and with the trend
steadily upward as 1t has been during
recent years it is quite easy to un-
derstand why the southern cotton
farmers refuse to plant any other crop.
The Standard Oil company and the
steel trust and all the other alleged
monopolistic corporations could never
boast such complete control of any
necessity of life as the southern cot
ton farmers have.
When crop conditions are Ideal, the
southern cotton farmers can make a
pay a large net profit compared with
! any other crop in the world, but When
| crop conditions or the boil Weevil re-
duce the product of the farm to half
| or even less than half of a bale to
the acre. cotton prices Immediately
soar and what is lost in cotton is
made I'D in higher prices. India, At
rica and Asia strive in vain to supply
| sufficient cotton to effect materially
the monopoly now firmly held by the
! southern states. If any progress is to
be made in the way on the boil Wee
vii IL must be made by the use OF
enemies of the boil weevil
| WAR ON INSECTS ATTACK
Some progress is now being made
| along that line. Early planting OF the
crop gives it such an advance in
growth before the boil weevil becomes
active that 1t is able to Withstand the
| insects attack. Destruction or STUB
BILE in the fall is helping and the Unit
! ed states department of agriculture is
| furnishing many suggestions which
aid in the destruction Of this very ex-
| pensiVe crop pest.
Some idea of the profits from the
cotton crop can be gathered from the
record made by southwest Texas our
! ing the season which is now drawing
! to a close. Early spring frosts re-
|
! by as much as fifty per cent. In south
west Texas. however, there Is no frost.
| A large number of the farms particu-
! larly in the vicinity of San Antonio,
made from half bale to bale an
acre With cotton prices lowering
about fifteen cents a pound and cotton
seed prices higher than ever before,
owing to the heavy demand for the
various cattle feeds produced from
this seed. these farmers have made
| fortunes this year. In fact so profit
able has the cotton crop been that
a great many Of the homeseekers VINO
are purchasing lands in southwest
Texas are becoming cotton planters
| instead Of growing citrus fruits or try
! ing the numerous other crops which
! during recent years have become popu-
| lar in this semi-tropical territory. This
year hundreds Of farmers planting their
| first crop of cotton have made net
profits sufficiently large to pay for
! their land and all the agricultural
| implements necessary for it's tillage.
While possibly larger profits are made
from onions, garden truck, fruit and
| alfalfa, the difference between the cost