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

ton Of Louisiana and now it has COW
cred almost the whole of the Texas
cotton plantations and cut deep into
the heart of Oklahoma, Arkansas and
Louisiana. 1t has jumped the Missis-
sippi and is ravaging the states east Of
that river. It is beginning to lay waste
southern Alabama and it will soon be
eating the best cotton growing re-
gions of Georgia, Alabama and Florida.
from where it will go on into the
Carolinas as well.
The scientists, tell me that it is
bound to proceed and that some Of the
states which are yet free from it have
been raising funds to fight 1t. South
Carolina has already devoted $4,000
to getting ready for it; the Alabama
legislature has set aside a fund of s25,
900 to teach the farmers how to fight
it. and the general education board OF
New York is putting out through the
agricultural department at Washing
ton $4,000 this year to prepare Geor-
gia against its attacks.
Path of Ruin.
Until recently the path of this invad
ing army has been one of ruin TO the
planter. It has depopulated the coun-
ties, bankrupted business and sown
sorrow and despair. \ few years ago
it was prophesied that it would blight
our whole cotton crop and cause a loss
to the country of more than s2000e0
600 a year AS it is now. notwith
standing its ravages, by the improved
farming methods an equal amount of
cotton has been raised; and last year
our product was greater in quantity and
money than ever before. Had there
been no boil weevil and had the sam"
methods been used throughout the
whole cotton belt, our crop would have
81. Ia
producing as much as 10000 600 bales
and upward a year This is the esti-
mate of the late DR.. Seaman Knapp,
the father of the cooperative demons
tration work of the agricultural de-
partment throughout the south. which
has proved the salvation of the coun-
try.
Before DR.. Knapp and his agents had
shown the planters what might be
done in cotton raising, notwithstand-
ing the weevil. the farmers were in
despair. They had been raising only
cotton, and the weevil became the ter
ror of millions. The planters thought
1t was Impossible to fight it, and
man who had lost big plantation said
it was proof against anything under
the sun. At one of the convention
he said he had put weevil in bot
tie Of alcohol which was 50 percent
pure and left it there for two hours.
At the end Of that time he took it
and put it on the table and it was only
drunk He then sealed a
handful of the insects in a tin can
and laid it up a brush heap, which
was set on fire. The flames melted the
solder from the can and the red hot
weevils flew out and and burned down
his barn.
Has Cost Millions.
Speaking seriously, however, the de-
partment estimates that the weevil has
already cost US millions Of bales of
cotton and many millions of dollars.
1t has annually cost Texas more than
$40 600, 900 for a series of years and
it is now ravaging the states farther
east.
Take Mississippi, for instance, the
southern part of which state is now
weevil covered. In 1906 the cotton crop
of Adams county amounted to $4,000
bales, and it was more than 10000 in
In 1907. Then the weevil flew in and
in 1909 the yield dropped to 100 bales.
The Tenant farmers and laborers left
the county in gangs, and today lands
can be bought there for a song. 1t is
the same in some counties of Louisi
ana. In Pointe Copee $4,000 bales of
cotton, which. including the seed, were
worth over s3,500,000, were raised in
1906. and the crop Of 1907, amounting
to $1,000 bales, was worth about
s3,000,000 Then the boil weevil came.
and in 1909 the crop fell to $500 bales,
or to something like s2O00 00 These
figures give you some idea of what
this deadly bug means under the old
cotton raising conditions.
There is another feature of the stu
alton, however. which must be men
toned. In most parts of the cotton
belt cotton was the only crop. The
planter relied upon it for the money
with which he bought everything else.
He imported his corn from the north
and his pork came from the store. He
sent abroad for his mules. and, with
the exception perhaps of a few vege-
tables, raised nothing but cotton. !
Moreover, he did the most of his farm |
ng on credit, getting the storekeeper I
1r planter for whom he worked to fur |
lish him his supplies for the winter, |