El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-06-03

to supply more than so, 600 900 of bales.
This estimate Is based on the worlds
consumption Of cotton, of which we
are bound to always be the chief fac
tor. We are now making more than
seven-tenths of the whole md al
though England, Germany and Russia
have been spending millions to com
pete with US, they have so far labored
in vain They have tried to develop new
fields in Africa, Asia and elsewhere
but the climate and labor in those
fields are such that they have but
little hope for the future.
There is some cotton made in India
and Egypt and smaller amounts in
Russian Turkestan, Brazil and China,
but of the total crop of the world the
United States still produces a 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 if it were not for the boil
weeyil, and she can still do that, so
the scientists of the agricultural de-
partment tell me- with the weevil to
fight.
A Bug Which Eats Gold.
But before I go further 1 want to
tell you something about this little
bug which eats gold faster than the
mercury used in our smelters. I saw
one during a visit to the agricultural
department this afternoon. It was in
closed in a glass bottle no bigger
around than a lead pencil. and not
an inch long. It is not as large as
pea, and it is, in fact a little green
ish gray creature about a quarter Of
an inch long, with a miniature snout
of the same character as that Of a
razor back hog. It is really a beetle
which breeds in the pods and seeds OF
the cotton plant, ana which seems TO
feed alone upon it. 1t is a cunning
creature, and, to use a vulgar express
sion is right on the job" 1t has small
wings, and it flies upon the cotton
boil when just about forming. It bores
a hole in the pod With its snout, and
then turns around and lays its eggs
in that hole. Tt now takes some wax
or gum and smears over the hole, clos
ing it tight.
By and .by the eggs hatch into
worms, and they eat out the heart of
the boil so that it falls to the ground
The worms continue to eat, and within
a short time grow into weevils just
like their mothers They in turn lay
their eggs in more bolls of cotton, in
creasing so rapidly that in one sea-
son single family will become 15,
100000
There has been wild talk about an
army of Japanese joining with the
Mexicans 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 1892. It then crossed the
Rio Grande, and began to increase its
army at this 100000 per family ra-
ito. You member Cadmus, who sowed
the teeth Of a dragon, whereupon
regiment Of armed men sprang from
the soil It is the same with the boil
weevil, only its regiments come up by
the billions. They continue to hold
every bit of ground that they take.
and increasing by geometrical ratio
they march onward every year a strip
of territory which is IS or more miles
wide
have before me a map prepared by
the United States bureau of entomol-
ogy which marks out the lines Of ad-
vancement In 1892 the boil weevil had
infested a short strip in south Texas.
In 1893 it had moved farther north
and west and continued It's progress
each year until, in 1900, aided by the
storms and winds which brought about
the Galveston flood, 1t had spread far
beyond that city and was eating its
way into the heart of the cotton belt
A year later it had attacked a por-