The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-02

tenants, most of them negroes, were helpless. There was no one to stand out l with courage in the face of the approach | ing evil and demonstrate what might be cone in spite of the plague | The negroes turned over their mort | gagged stock to the merchants and left the country in droves. They were well comed by the farmers in the delta sec | and needed the labor.
 Today Adams county presents a most pitiab ble picture. The following figures tell the story:
 In 1906 the year before the arrival of the weevil, Adams county grew g, s36 bales of cotton, 20 455 in 1907, 14l55 in 1908, 100 in 1909 In 1910 conservative estimates place the crop at less than 300 bales. In normal conditions there were 42 gins in operation in the county. In 1909 there were Is. There were only last year. This tells the story of all those sections in the southwest where the people be- came demoralized and refused or were not permitted to try cotton growing under the boil weevil conditions.
 But other sections where the people had courage and used intelligence show en- tirely different results.
 During the past year I have talked with numbers of farmers from the weevil in fested sections of Texas. Most of them | are growing as much cotton as ever be- | fore. Some of them are growing more. 1 They smile when you ask them about | the boil weevil.
 I have before me a most valuable re- port from two Mississippi cotton planters who made a careful personal investigation of boil weevil conditions in the south west
 l The report is by Alfred H. Stone and Julian H. Fort. owners and proprietors | of the Dunleith plantations at Dunleith, Miss. The report covers 32 printed pages and Is most exhaustive. It was printed and is being distributed by the First Ma | tional bank of Greenvile. The pamphlet | is called The Truth About the Boil Weevil.''
 | It is written by practical cotton grow | CTS who returned home after their ex- | haustive investigation we'll pleased with their findings and without fear of the | boil weevil. They will continue to grow cotton on their large plantations and their report is an inspiration for others to do | the same
 | After brief history of the weevil. it's | first appearance in Texas and it's prog | ress across the cotton belt through the season of 1910, the report declares that the
 weevil presents a purely local problem. Soil. climate, rainfall and other physical and economic conditions are all factors. l Decentralization seems to be the only condition that will not withstand the rav- ages of the pest Courage, intelligence and hard work with mutual co-opera tion between bankers. merchants, planters and tenants will produce cotton in spite | of the weevil and on a much better basis The deduction one draws from a care- full reading of this report is that the boil weevil is an ultimate blessing rather than a curse.
 l The report points out that in many counties of Texas similar in every re- spect to Adams county above referred to the farmers are growing more cotton than before the appearance of the weevil. | Here the peopl erefused to demoralize. They stayed by their guns and continued to work. The merchants and bankers did the best and wisest thing they could see and continued to back the man behind
 the weevil. The result has been most
 gratifying.
 I fnt1nUtn0 yfroa
 port:
 l "In 1905 Red River county, with nc weevils. made 949S bales. After the weeyi]
 appeared 1t made, in 1907. 1s.61S bales; fir 1908, 17,766 bales; in 1909, 19,722 bales And this with greatly reduced acreage | In 1905, year of excessive rains, Lamar county, with no weevils, made only g, ,42:
 bales. With normal seasons, but witt
 weevils all over the county, and a mucl
 reduced acerage, it made %3.224 bales 1T 1908 and 44,612 bales in 1909. Harrison | county is on the eastern border of Tex. as. and In about the same latitude as
 Warren in this state. The year 1906 was
 banner cotton year in Harrison county
 and 1S,131 bales were raised. The bol
 weevil struck than in 1907 and the croI fell to 1883 bales. The county was spot
 ted with abandoned fields and state o
 panic prevailed equal to that produced bs
 pestilencer With a return of sanity ant
 a return to work, the county produced 17394 bales in 1909. Thus with a thor
 ough infestation of weevils and reduced
 acreage, the crop of 1909 was only 73
 bales less than that of 1906. In 1905, witt
 a wet year. but with full acreage ant
 no weevils, the crop was 11,155 bales, O
 62s9 bales less than In the weevil year O
 1s09 In Kaufman county the larges
 crop in six years, 60,60S bales, was mad,
 in 1sOs Contrast this with the 2o,O04 bale
 made in 1905. a wet year, but with nt
 weevlls.
 We talked with number of people iI
 Bowie. Red River, Lamar Kaufman ant
 Harrison counties. We found an entir'
 absence of fear of the weevil, and, in
 stead. universal feeling of confidenc
 and security.
 We found no instance here of failur
 to make profitable crop where there ex
 isted cooperation between the planter, tn