The Jones County news., 1912-02-29

over-wintered, il is advisable to
hand pick or poison the early ap-.
pearing weevils,
9. persistenlly pick up and burn
the fallen squares.
Now. this battle against the wee
vii is in two divisions, namely: The
first division Of the work consist in
reducing the number Of weevils
just as much as possible SO that a
orep can be made. The second di-
vision is to push the cotton plant
to maturity as fast as possible.
Destroying Of The stalks is very
destructive to the weevil in the
field bat its value depends consid-
erably on the way it is done. Dem
onstrations have been made show
ing that it caused The destruction
Of as many as 81 per cent of lie
weyils il done early ip the fall, but
if delayed it might allow as many
as 10 per cent to escape An rub
bish in and about the fields should
be burned and the field imnediat.
" broken, IF this single instruction
could be carried out py cvcry cot
ton producer it would practically
solve the boil weeyil problem.
The next most important work
in eliminating the weevl is in The
spring, when The cotton plant be-
gins TO put on squares and the IN
Testing weeyil punctmes them. If
The grower viii take note of This
and Immediately attach n pole or
brush 20 the handle of The culti-
vator so as To knock the bush aud
haster the falling of the squares,
then pick up and burn them. The
boil weevil problem is almost solv-
cd In one serse this picking up
of the squares goes to the root Of
the matter more than early fall
destruction Of stalks, because IN the
fail destruction only small per-.
centage OF the weevils would livs
through the winter anyway, white
we can rest assured that pract-
eally every square not picked up
and destroyed, at least in cloudy
weather, will result in producing a
boil weevil to infest the crop. We
know of hundreds of instances
where fields were located Ia the
best situation for weevil depreda-
tion, on bottom lands surrounded
by heavy timber, with rank
growth of cotton and no previous
pr sparation or burning Of the stalks
or destruction Of the rubbish, and
yet by picking up the squares and
intensive cultivation a large crop
Of cotton was made If care Is
taken that every square is de-
fstroyed a wffofs gencrntfon or wce4
wills will be wiped out in two or
three weeks The old wsevils viii
die and we can go right on making
a crop.
We therefore wish TO emphasize
the two points, the early destruc-
tion Of The stalks in the fall and
the picking up and burning Of the
squares as of primary importance
in making a successful crop of cot
ton. The early destruction Of the
stalks in the fall has double adj
vantage. It not only kills vast
number of weevils, but it destroys
all their supply of food.
The best seed bed requires WELL
drained and plenty of vegetable
matter in the soil our attention has
been called to many cases where
the land was so poorly drained
that it was impossible to get into
the field to work the crop for ten
or fifteen days at a time. This
gave grass, the arch enemy Of a
large cotton crop, great advan-
tage Besides, under boil weeviI
conditions, it permitted a rapid
increase of the pest. Work the sci
two or three times before planting
it, this warns it and pulverizes it
and makes available plant food.
The next important point is the
variety of cotton to be planted. 1t
will not do to continue to use the
too common policy, any kind Of
seed just SO it is cotton. II should
be variety Of cotton that throws
out its fruit limbs close to the
ground and has short joint, be-
cause the short joint can grow in
less time than the long one. A.
plant that can produce good bolls
clear to the ends Of the limbs, and
can make full crop Of cotton on
the lower half Of the plant
The field should be planted with
a somewhat wider space between
the rows than in non-infested fields.