Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-06-04

Copyright, by Frank C. Carpehter.)


ESE1EGSI by prevented untold millions of human
kS&szsA9 beings at home and abroad from 60
ing in rags. The story is that deals
not only with the south, but with our balance Of
trade 1t affects the cotton factories of New Eng
land well those of Great Britain and all parts
of Europe 1t affects the life work of millions Of
women and children and the pocketbook of every
in the country.
1t is the story of a plague greater than that of
the locusts which ate up Pharoahs Egypt or of the
grasshoppers which years ago chewed the heart
OF bleeding Kansas" 1t is the story Of a bug
not one-tenth the size of a mans finger nail but
which, uncontrolled, babe fair scratch prosperity
from the face of the best states south of the Of
Mason and Dixon. 1t is the story of the boil weev
and Of how Uncle Sans army of rs 900 demonstra-
ton farmers scattered the cotton belt are fight
ing 1t and thereby bringing in an of wealth the
possibilities of which beyond the widest dreams
of that land.
+ The Realm of King Cotton.
Have you ever thought how mighty King Cotton is?
He is the richest monarch the face of the globe
He has an aggregate annual income in raw material
and goods, worth billions of dollars, and this is
steadily growing in value. Our share of the
cotton crop has more than doubled within the last
twenty years and has quadruped within the last fifty
If the present rate of increase continues the demand
will be twice great within twenty years more and
by 1850 we shall be asked to supply than fifty
millions of bales. This estimate is based on the
Worlds consumption OF cotton, of which we are
bound to always be the chief factor. We are now
making more than seven-tenths of the whole and
although England, Germany and Russia have been
spending millions to compete with us, they have so
far labored in vain They tried to develop new
fields in Africa, Asia and elsewhere but the climate
and labor In those fields such that they have but
little hope for the future
There is cotton made in India and Egvpt
and smaller amounts in Russian Turkestan Brazil and
China, but of the total of the world the United
States still produces great deal more than two
thirds, and the prospect is that she will do that for
all time to come She would certainly do more IL IL
were not for the boil weevil and she can still do
that the scientists of the Agricultural department
tell me, with the weevll to fight.
Bug Which Eats Gold
But before go farther want to tell you some
thing about this little bug which eats gold faster
than the mercury used in shelters l saw one
during visit to the Agricultural department this
afternoon 1t was incosed in a glass bottle bigger
around than lead pencil and not an inch long It
Is not as large as flea and it is, in fact little
greenishgray creature about quarter of long,
with miniature snout of the character as that
OF razor-back hog. 1t is really beetle which breeds
in the pods and seeds of the cotton plant, which
seems to feed alone upon it, 1t is cunning creature
and to use vulgar expression, is right the job"
1t has small wings, and it flies upon the cotton boil
when just about forming 1t bores hole in the pod
with its snout, and then turns around and lays its
eggs in that hole 1t takes some wax or gum
and smears over the hole, closing it tight
BY and by the eggs hatch out into worms, and they
eat out the heart of the boil that It falls to the
ground. The worms continue to eat, and within
short time grow into weevs Just like their mothers
They in turn lay their In bos OF cotton in
creasng so rapidly that in single family
viii become fifteen millions
al Our Greatest Mexican Invasion.
hal
Joining with the Mexieans and invading the United
States The greatest Mexican invasion and the most
serious invasion is that OF this little bug which came in
from Mexico In 1891 1t then the Rio Grande
and began to increase its army this fifteen million
per family ratio You remember Cadmus who sowed
the teeth OF q dragon. whereupon a regiment of armed
sprang from the soil 1t is the same with the boil
weevI. only its regiments up by the billions
They continue to hold every bit OF ground that they
take and increasing by geOmertcal ratio they march
onward. oonQuertng every year strip of territory
which Is Beventy-five miles wide
have before me map prepared by the United
States bureau OF entomology which out the lines
OF advancement In 1892 the boil weev had infested
q short strip In south Texas In 1893 1t had moved
farther north and west and continued its progress
each year until in 1900 aided by the storms and
winds which brought about the Galveston mood It had
spread far beyond that city and was eating its way
into the heart of the cotton belt
year later It had attacked portion OF Louisiana
and has covered almost the whole OF the Texas
cotton plantations and deep into the heart of Okla
homa Arkansas and Louisiana, It has Jumped the
Mississippi and is ravaging states east OF that
river. II is beginning TO lay waste southern Alabama
and it will soon be eating the best cotton growing
regions of Georgia, Alabama and Florida from where
It will go on into the Caroinas as we'll
The scientists tell me that II Is bound to proceed