The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1911-12-01
-WEEVlL FIGHT
Interesting Communication
About Boil Weevil.
Farmers Told How to Prepare LANDS.
About Burning bitches off, Etc.

The following has been furnished the
Sentinel by one of the Government ag-
ricultural men who is deeply and per-
s%onally interested in preparing for and
fighting the boil weevil:
The first thing to be learned is that
the boil weevil is going to give us the
fight of our lives. not somebody else,
but us. And now is the time to begin
the fight. Then we should also know
that we can win out if we will put our
heads into the game and not only fight,
but fight intelligently. The things nee
essary for us to win this fight are easy
to enumerate, but hard to get carried
out.
We must make the farm self-sus-
tainng. Nobody can afford to buy
corn and meat to make boil weevil cot
ton. And the man who furnishes these
things along with the other things he
will have to furnish, and expects his
pay from boil weevil cotton, is taking
too much risk.
The cotton acreage will have to be
cut down, since it must be worked fas-
ter and more intensively. Until we
learn to fight the weevil, five or six
acres is as mnch as can be handled to
the mule. This will give US more land
for other crops, and diversification is
one of the essentials in this fight. Ev-
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for the next five years will do it after
COW peas or some other leguminous
crop.
Plant every row of corn in peas, les
perdeza or soy beans behind oats or
wheat. A good crop for this county is
oats, sown in the fall--now is an excel
lent time; then SOW lesperdeza on the
oats in February and harrow in with
section harrow. This will give you a
good hay crop AS well as . soil building
one, and save the time of breaking and
planting after the oats are harvested
at a time when you are needed so
much in your corr and cotton.
Cut down your cotton acreage, as |
said before, and put the rest of your
land in whatever crop will pay best,
taking your location in regard to mar
ket and your particular soil into con-
sheraton.
After you raise your meat and feed
stuffs and cut down your cotton acre
age, then go to work on the boil weevil.
He must be worked on in two ways:
first, by killing all the weevil you can,
and second by making the earliest crop
of cotton possible.
Cotton stalks should be cut and
burned if they can be cut before frost;
but should never be burned after a kill
ling frost, since a very small percent
age of adult weevi. stay in the cotton
fields after the first freeze, and most OF
the immature weevils are killed any,
w%ay--and, too, all our soils need the
stalks left on the land unless we can
accomplish something by burning.
Turning under good aud deep is just
about as good before frost and is the
only method after a frost. Burn off
all ditch banks, sedge patches anc
hedge rows around the field, as the
weevil passes the winter in all such
places.
Early in the spring, when the cottor
first up, be on the lookout fol-
the weevil. You will find him in the
little tender bud of the plant until the
squares begin to form. Get as many
of these first weevil as you can. lot
can easily afford to pay one cent each
lor them at first, as a very few at this
time can destroy a bale of cotton be.
fore the season is over. 1t is possible
for one pair of these first weevils tc
produce 20 million during the season.
After the squares begin to form,
there is no use to try any further te
catch the grown weevil. But by all
means, pick up punctured squares and