Fitzgerald enterprise. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1895-1912, 1910-11-29
The Boil WeeviI And
How To Meet 1t

boil WeeVll convention, held IN At
lanta, was not only timely, but | be-
lieve will arouse the farmers and
business interests of the state gen
orally to an appreciation Of the i'm
pending danger from this destruc-
tive insect.
However, Georgia has been active
ly alive to the coming of the boil
weeyil for the past seven years, and
seversl thousands of dollors have
been expended by the state depart
ments Of agriculture and entomolo-
gy in protecting the state from the
boil Weevil.
In 1903, while you were president
of the state senate and | was chair
man of the senate committee on
agriculture, a bill was introduced
and passed appropriating money to
enable the state entomologist to
study the habits of the Weevil, issue
bulletins to the farmers as how best
to safeguard their cotton crops from
the insect, and also to establish and
maintain a strict quarantine against
the shipment of products from the
weevil-infected territory of the
southwest into this state.
Our state entomologist has been
active along these lines for the past
seven years, and the farmers insti-
tute and extension work of the State
College Of Agriculture has likewise
been an important factor in prepar-
ing the farmers Of the state for the
coming of the weevil.
Within the next two or three years
the boil weevil will invade the cot
ton fields ofsthis state and the real
fight against the pest will begin.
The United States department OF
entomology and plant industry will
then establish a force of experts in
Georgia to assist the farmers, just
has been the case in the other cot
ton states already infected.
AS an adjunct to the state depart
ment and college work, it should be
the policy of the state to welcome
all the aid which can be given by
the federal government.
The boil Weevil is the most dis
astrous insect known to science, and
one which no specific, as yet discov-
cred, will eradicate.
The cotton acreage Of Texas has
been increased 80 per cent in the
past ten years, but there has been
no corresponding increase in pro-
duction. Normal crops in Texas
can only be assured when the Win
tiers are so severe as to practically
exterminate the Weevils in their
period of Information.
Last year with nearly 100000
acres planted in cotton, Texas pro-
duced only 100000 bales.
The state of Louisiana produced
over 100000 bales Of cotton in
1906, but since the invasion of the
weevils the crops for the past two
years have been reduced to a quar-
ter of million bales, practically par
the cotton industry of that
state.
In 1908 the state of Mississippi
100000 bales. but with
the invasion of the weevil the crops
for the past two years have been
reduced fully one-third.
| believe that the climatic condi-
tons in the old cotton growing
states mill be far more favorable
for the propagation of the weevil
and it consequent desu uctivenesS
than is possible under the severe
winters and hot, dry, summers OF
Texas.
Georgia farmers should be inn
pressed with the seriouinesS of the
situation they are to face within the
next three years and, urged by the
state press and our departments of
agriculture, to prepare for war in
times of peace.
Follow the advice of the govern
ment experts who have spent years
in the study of the Weevil and have,