The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-06-04

such that they have but little hope for
the future.
There is some cotton made In India
and Egypt and smaller amounts in Rus
sian Turkestan, Brazil and China. but
of the total crop of the world the
United States still produces a great
deal more than two-thirds.5 and the
prospect Is that she Will do that for
all time to come. She would certainly
do more II 1t were not for the boil
weevil, and she can stlli do that, so
the scientists OF the Agricultural De-
partment tell ME. with the weevil to
fight.
Bug Which Eats Gold.
But before 60 farther 1 want to
tell you something about this little bug
which eats gold faster than the mer-
curry used in our smeiters. saw one
during q visit 20 the Agricultural De-
partment this afternoon. II was in
closed in a glass bottle no bigger
around than a lead pencil. and not an
inch long. 1t Is not as large as flea.
and IL is, in fact, little greenish- gray
creature, about quarter of an inch
long. with miniature snout of the
same character as that of a razor bac elk
hog Il is really beetle. which breeds
in the pods and seeds OF the cotton
plant, and which seems to feed alone
to use vulgar expression. is right on
the Job" 1t has small wings, and IL
flies upon the cotton boil when Just
about forming. 1t bores a hole in
the pod with Its snct,t, and then turns
! around and lays Its eggs In that hole.
1t now takes some wax or gum and
smears over the hole. closing it tight.
BY and by the eggs hatch into worms.
and they eat out the heart of the boil.
CT hot n FOL n hn n
worms continue TO eat, ana within a
short time grow into weeviIs Just like
their mothers They. in turn, lay their
eggs in more bolls of cotton. increa sing
SO rapidly that in one season a single
family will become 100000.
onr Greatest Mexican Invasion.
There has been wild talk about an
army of Japanese joining with the Mex
leans and invading the United States.
The greatest Mexican vasion, and the
most serious INVASION is that of this
little bug. which came In from Mexico
in 1899 It then crossed the Rio Grande
and began to Increase its army at this
100000 per family ratio. You re-
member Cadmus, who showed the
teeth OF a drs gon. whereupon a resi-
ment of armed men sprang from the
soil. 1t Is the same with the boil Wee
will, only its regiments come up by the
u
bit of ground that they take, and. in
creasing by geometrical ratio, they
march onward. conquerins every year
a strip of territory which is seventy
Ave or more miles wide.
have before me a map prepared by
the United States Bureau Of Entomol-
ogy which marks out the lines OF adj
vancement. In lS92 the boil weevil had
Infected short strip in South Texas.
a. - Co. fhor M r. a RI
west and continued its progress each
year until, in 1900. aided by the storms
and winds which brought about the
Galveston flood it had spread far be-
You'd that city and was eating Its way
into the heart of the cotton belt. =
B a year later 1t had attacked por-
ton of Louisiana and now It has COW
cred almost the whole OF the Texas
cotton plant ations and cut deep Into
the heart of oklahoma. Arkansas and
Louisiana. 1t has jumped the Mis-
sissippi and is ravaging the states east
of that river. 1t is beginning to lay
waste Southern Alabama, and It will
soon be eating the best cotton growing
regions of Georgia, Alabama and Flor
Ida. from where 1t Will so on into the
Carolinas as we'll
The SCIENTISTS tell me that it is
hound TO proceed and that some OF the
States which are yet free from II have
been raising funds to fight It., South
Carolina has already devoted $4,000
to getting ready forFit: the Alabama
Legislature has set aside fund of
$4,000 to teach the farmers how to
fight it, and the General Educa ton
Board of New York is putting out,
through the Agricultnral Department
at washington, $4,000 this year to
prepare Georgia againstits attacks.
ea. "A Path OF Ruin 81 ~
@s Until recently the path OF this In
the pianter II has depopni la ~ INC 10
counties. bankrapted y business and
sown sorrow and despair. a few years
ago It was yprophesied that it would
blight our whole cotton; crop. and cause
< a loss to the country of more than
$500, 100000 a year:As tits now. not
gwithstanding It's rava gesl by the Inn,
proved farming methods3 an equal
amount OF cotton has boen, raised;
and Alasttyear our pr Cd ct+.was greatOt