The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1912-02-09

oItGD1s " WIZ LINZ AN|As-
weevil had struck Red river and hit il
mighty hard lick over there. About
one-half of the planters gave it up al
together. However, there were lot
of good farmers that stuck to the busi-
ness. They went right ahead and made
good cotton. and they're making good
cotton today, and they have been max
ing money, and making money with the
boil weevil. found on talking to them
and going around with them that they
had cut cut all the land that would not
mature cotton quickly. You all know,
every planter here knows, that we can
not get land with water standing on it
| to warm up in time to make cotton un-
der boil weevil conditions, therefore !
say cut out all of that, put it into corn
and oats, or something else; it will
make better corn if you had the water
off, but you can make corn, oats, lespe-
deza on pretty wet land, Don't plant
that wet land in cotton, because you
cant get ahead of the boil weevil; it is
race from start to finish; if you don t
beat the boil weevil it beats you.
1.-The first thing to do is to clean up
all your land where you have grassy
patches or places where the boil wee
wills can hide, ditchbanks, ETC., destroy
all the boil weevils you possibly can,
for everyone you destroy now you are
done with him. If he comes out and
gets into the cotton and you don destroy
him he will give you plenty of weevils;
they come thick and fast and in a
hurry.
PLoW LAND EARLY.
Next, plow your land as early as
possible: the weather has been such
that there has been very little plowing
done yet. Most of the land should have
been plowed by this time, but it has
been impossible to do so. The earlier
and deeper and the better you pulverize
and prepare your lands, the better your
crops will be. Everybody knows that
it is impossible to get good stand and
an early crop on land that has just
been plowed up, the ground will harden
and pack down and form crust. If
you plant it and there comes a beating
rain and the cotton comes up and stands
there in that growing condition, il
takes all the vitality. You must get
the cotton in, plant as early as posi-.
BILE, plant it shallow in seed bed SC
that it will grow right off.
Next, work it as early as possible;
don't let the grass and the weeds get
the start. | frequently use a sector
harrow right across the ridges, anc
sometimes harrow two or three times
| in that manner. If you will start as
soon as it rains and put your harrows
on, you will destroy all the weeds anC
grass just started. 1t is much easier
to destroy it then. Avoid the low
places. #
"All that have black land--I suspect
you have been told that you could moi
raise cotton on black land--but | wan
to say to you that you can raise cottor
on black land and mature it more quick,
ly than on sandy lands. If your land is
drained well so that you have a gooc
loose seed bed, and plant it early, il
will make better than sandy land. You
can plant it earlier than in sandy lane
because there you have lice, which il
black land does not trouble you.
plant my black land-plow it-first
most farmers commence on to from
and plow back; / commence on tht
back and work forward the sandy land
toward the front. The black land mus
have rain, therefore | plow and plant il
first, and mature cotton there first
Last year picked cotton two weeks
earlier on the back of my place than OF
the front. Some of you perhaps hav,
not looked into the matter very closely
Be certain to drain out all low places
so as to not leave any water standing
you can not raise cotton with watel
standing.
Il PLANT EARLY VARIETY.
'Plant as early variety as possible
and cotton that does not make larg,
limbs and large leaves. With the Dol
weevils you want all the sun and air OF
the cotton you can get. And we hav,
found by experiment that the big Dol
cotton that makes big leaves and larg
limbs, covering the ground, make tn
best possible place for the weevils t
hide and breed. The other lets the sui
and air in. You can plant it thicker
put the rows closer together, and yol
J can plant it thicker in the drill, and W
have been getting more cotton.
am going to give you before ge
through test made with twenty-on
different varieties of cotton.
Begin to cultivate as soon as tn
cotton comes up. Cultivate until yo
commence to pick. Cultivate shalloy
as to not destroy the root. Cut as fe,
J surface roots as possible. Wheneve
YOU cut roots of cotton, it is like corr