The Port Gibson reveille. [volume] (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1890-current, 1911-04-13

doubt, that ninety nVe per cent u
those who THOUGHT they were fol-
flowing demonstration methods,
and who still failed, were either
lacking in their conception of the
full meaning Of those methods, or
that they omitted important details,
or that they lacked thorougnness
in the execution of those details.
shall now enumerate some Of
the advantages of our position IN
1911 as compared with former
years. Every indication points to
the certainty that the wintered
weevils are far less numerous than
in any year since the first year of
total infestation.
The killing frost of October
18th, 1910, destroyed all immature
weevils. 1t destroyed the food
supply of the mature weevils and
forced them into Information near
! ly month earlier than usual. It
is an infallible law of nature that
the sum total of vital force IN any
thing living can not be changed by
the mere will power of that thing,
consequently we know that fewer
weevils will survive a winter that
is three weeks longer than the av-
erage.
On January 1st, 1911, We had a
heavy, driving rain that thorough
ly saturated everything not pro
tected extraordinarily well. This
rain was Immediately followed by
a long, hard freeze, and many a
weevil was consequently encased
in sheath of ice that lasted for
four days.
The opinions of the "Ice-block
man" to the contrary, notwith
standing, we have reason to be-
|lieve that a considerable number
of bibernated weeviIs perished in
this protracted freeze.
Except for the one hard freeze.
we have had one of the mildest
winters on record. January and
February were like March and
April of the normal year. Is it
not likely that many of the hiber-
mated weevils were tempted to
leave their quarters and they ex-
pended some part of their vital
force, and still further diminished
their chances of living until the
cotton begins to make squaresa
We have had almost ideal wealth.
er for the preparation of the soil.
l am persuaded that more early
and thorough blowing has been
done in South Mississippi than
ever before, at least by those that
believe cotton must still prove our
main reliance as a money crop.
That early and thorough prepara-
ton is one of the essential things
that many failed to appreciate in
former years and we can hardly
calculate the value of that advan-
tage for this year.
There was marked disinclina-
ton of the labor to adhere strictly
and closely to demonstration meth
DDS in former years. That disin
cIination was accounted for partly
because of the haIf-hearted allegi-
ance OF the land owner to those
methods, and partly to the labor
er's slowness to change to some
thing new. In many instances the
land owners did not take the
trouble to treat their tenants as
reasoning beings; did not take the
labor into their full confidence; did
not show to them conclusiveIy that
landlord and tenant had COM
munity of interest; did not inspire
them with that personal confidence
necessary when great things are at
stake.
know by personal investiga-
ton on many plantations that the
majority of tenants, if rightly IN
structed and rightly handled, will
now render unquestiOning obedi-
ence to all reasonable orders. l
know, too, that it is human for all
men to do the most thorough work
when they have a full understand
ing and a strong belief in its eff
cheney.
It has been urged by pessimists
that the light rainfall during the