The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-27

l To the Editor of The Age Herald:
 | A circular recently issued from the
 United States bureau of entomology con-
 tains information regarding the work of
 the boil weevil which should prove ex- ceptionally interesting to the people of Alabama at this time. It deals with the yield of cotton in different sections of Texas during the years 1899 to 1909, inclu- sive, dividing the period into two terms
 of five and six years, respectively. It
 considers the cotton area of Texas as
 forming three sections, known as eastern,
 central and western. The method of
 determining the effect of the weevil is by finding the average yield in each of | these three sections during each period of the time, and comparing in a general way the percentage of the total state yield produced in each case. The results | show very clearly the general status of cotton production and the variations which may be reasonably attributed to
 weevil injury during a long period Of time.
 | Between 1899 and 1903 east Texas pro- duced an average of approximately 67S,0OC | bales, which was cen slightly less than
 one-fourth or 25 per cent of the total Texas crop In that same time central Texas produced 1,500, GOO bales or approx | imatey 56 per cent of the state yield,
 while west Texas grew 520,O0O, or a little | over 19 per cent of the entire crop. Six l years later the average yield for the same area in eastern Texas, after the hod | it, had fallen to 5O9, 900 bales, or i6.5 per cent of the Texas crop. In central Texas the average total yield had slightly in- | creased. but the percentage had been re- duced 21a per cent. In west Texas, on the | contrary, owing to a large increase in | cultivated area, and also to the fact that | In much of this section the boil weevi | does not even yet occur, the yield had | increased to more than 925,0OO bales, or | approximately 30 per cent of the state yield.
 An examination of these figures will
 answer for us the question so often asked How is it that Texas is now producing | about as much cotton as she has ever | grown?" We see that in east Texas there | has been a decline in cotton production | amounting to more than 25 per cent of what may be considered the normal yield | in that area This may be attributed directly and indirectly to the occurrence | of the boil weeviI since 1908. Central Tex as, embracing the most productive cot | ton lands in the state, has been able | nearly to hold her own in spite of the
 weevil, quite largely because of the work | which has been done in fighting the pest | through the adoption of demonstration | farm methods. The average annual yield l in central and east Texas together is | however, much less than 1t was before the boil weevil reached there. It Is the great increase in newly cultivated terri. tory in west Texas with its exceptionally
 dry climate protecting 1t against inva- sions of the weevil which has helped tc
 keep the total Texas crop as large as il | in yield has amounted to more than z; per cent. With all this Texas is not pro ducing, or has not produced in 1910 near l ly as much cotton as she has grown dur. | ing certain years preceding.
 | Remembering that the greatest injury
 done by the boil weevil in Texas is ir
 the eastern part of the state, we car
 understand the still more striking reduc.
 ton in cotton yield which has occurred in Louisiana. According to recent statement in the New Orleans Times Democrat. the 1910 crop of cotton in Louis.