The Semi-weekly leader. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1905-1941, 1910-09-17


means should be employed towards
increasing their vegetable or humus
contents and thus bringing them
up to higher state Of productive
ity. This is all very we'll, and is
one of the economic sides in the
fight against the boil weevil that
we must never fail to overlook. /
have given this particular point
considerable thought for the last
three years, and I cannot help con-
cIuding that while most Of our soils
stand greatly in need of vegetable
matter. the advantage to be gained
by the thorough destruction of all
cotton stalks by fire as early in the
fall as possible outWeighs the fer
tilizing value to the land that these
stalks might contain. An analysis
of a dry cotton stalk III the fall
does not show very high fertiliz-
ing content nor does it contain a
great deal of vegetable matter that
would better the physical condition
Of the soil. 1t is true this fer
tilizing content and this vegetable
matter have some value, but we
must choose between two evils,
that is, we must either keep this
vegetable and fertilizing matter
and keep millions of plump, we'll
fed Weevils to enter winter quar-
tiers: or on the other hand, we must
destroy this soil improving ma
terial. and at the same time rid
our fields of millions of weevils
that would otherwise pass the win
ter and attack our cotton next
spring. Here is another point in
this connection. I know that your
county did not practice stalk de-
struction to any great extent last
fall, and you know. too, that the
labor of picking weevils and
squares this spring has been no in
considerable item. We will proba-
bly, not have another year in ten
when the weather conditions will
be more favorable to the farmer
and more unfavorable to the wee
vii than the conditions last winter
were. This is proven by the
Information tests that have been
carried on at Tallulah and Mansura
this year. One year ago up to the
10th of June over 20 per cent of the
over-wintered weevils at -Mansura
had emerged from Information; !;
while this year up to the same date
only slightly over 4 per cent had
emerged: that is. the percentage of
emergence last year following a
mild winter was more than five
times what it was this year follow
ing>a a severe winter. Do you not
think that if your farmers had to
pick and destroy five times the
amount of weevils that they picked
and destroyed this year, the ex-
pense of so doing would be very
great?
Now, as to the effectiveness of
grazing these cotton fields, with
cattle: as you perhaps will recall
covered good deal of your county
last fall during the month of Octo-
ber. In my travels | observed a
great many cotton fields where an
attempt had been made to destroy
the cotton foliage by turning cattle
in the fields. and in not a single
instance did find field where the
destruction had been thorough and
complete. In every case enough OF
green foliage had been left to sup
port large numbers of weevlls.
Theoretically, if the number. of cat
tie was sufficient. this plan would
be effective, but in actual practice
| fear that the number of cattle in
Lincoln county would be entirely
unable to denude your cotton fields
of green foliage before frost. This
would be especially true In a wet
fall. Now, If it should happen, as
it sometimes does, that our fall
months should be extremely dry
and nature should thoroughly de.
stroy all green foliage in our fields,
then the necessity for any artificial
destruction Of stalks would be OBJ.
waited, because nature would have
already done the work for us.
Recapitulating. it seems that We
are agreed on all of the essential
points with the single exception OF
what is the best method of getting
these stalks out of the way in the
fall. claim that 1t can only be
done effectively by fire. ! claim
also that while the fertilizing los
amounts to something. it is only {
question Of choosing between twt
levils, and that am choosing ths
lesser one. AS you know, we al
ways stand in favor Of any practice
where it can consistently be prac
lticed, that will improve the fertil
lity Of our lands. To do this let Us
turn out these stalks in the fal
with middle breaker. rake then
land burn them and plant cove,
Icrop Of oats or rye on this land
This will give US several thing
sanctioned by the best agriculture
authorities. In the first place. W,
have destroyed our cotton stalk
and boil Weevils in the secont
dplace. we have fall-broken ou
lands: in the third place. we hav
Isupplied a winter cover crop t
prevent erosion Of the land; in th
fourth place we have provided
good winter pasture for our stock
and in the fifth place when thi
green material is turned under 81
the land ii the spring, the amour
OF humus and vegetable matter re