Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1914-01-09
SUCCESSFUL COTTON PLANTER PLANT.
Ed EARLY.


1 W iShS'f A<<s- Jou lJit.
Editor Natchcz Democrat:
| In your issue of December 3Ist is a let
Ter signed j. c. Cooper, agent, Y. 4 NJ
V. Il. X. Co., that purports to deal with
md dispose of, the boil weevil problem
With which we are confronted, simply b,
planting a late crop of cotton, say Ma,
10Th. But for the fact that the gentleman
.igns himself agent for one of our grea
|, railroads, which might possibly Civ,
some prestige to his views, do not con
slider IT likely the article would be takel
seriously by many planters While moi
attempting to enumerate the various line,
of endeavor that Aave engaged his atten
ton since 1900 to the present time, it i.
sufficient to note he has not planted cot.
ton in recent years, il at all; he has the
teremity To- set his views against the De-
partment of Agriculture and the practical
experience Of men who are successfully
coping with the weevil and making fair
crops. The territory along the n. o. Il n.
w. r. K. seems to have been more for
tunate in the raising of cotton since the
invasion of the weevil than any section
| am familiar with, and the methods en-
ployed have been i'm conformity with the
Government instructions as far as practi-
cable. As the Bureau of Agriculture at
Washington has during the past five or
six years issued countless thousands of
circulars and bulletins dealing with the
scientific side of this question, will not
take your valuable space to consider it
from that angle, but rather from the
standpoint of the man who is on the Job
and knows he is up against the real
thing"
There are many reasons why am OPP
posed to the late planting of cotton, not
the least of which are the dangers from
army worms, inability to get the crop
worked as late in August as it should be,
an early frost, to say nothing about the
migratory habit of the weevil; this period
occurs from the 10th to 10th of August
whep they swarm i'm millions and moth
ing will check them. This flight seems TO
extend to, from 40 to 60 miles, and it is
one OF the strongest arguments against
late planting, as there would be no such
thing as everybody adopting the method.
1t occurs to me that actualities and con-
ditions, not theories, should be carefully
considered in the handling of this serious
situation. II you will pardon the refer
ence to myself and business willsay
that | am one of many faSmers here who
made a success of growing cotton nnder
existing conditions, making from one
half to three-quarters of a bale to the
acre for the past four or five years. The
crop of 1913 was probably the shortest
during that period; conservative esti-
mate Of the loss to this crop by rotting in
the field would be 30 per cent.
On approximately 1000 acres the yield
was $40 bales. This cotton was planted
from the first to the twentieth of April.
Once week the fallen punctured squares
were picked up and burned; this contin-
ued to about July 18th or whereabouts,
depending upon the size OF the cotton.
was as thorough as labor con-
ditions would permit, say every eight
or ten days. This is about the sum and
substance of what We have been doing for
the past five years and but for the terrible
loss caused by excessive rains in Septem-
Der and October this parish would have
seen more money and genuine prosperity
than at any time since the Civil war.
am firmly of the opinion that no one
factor contributed more to this success
than the early planting of cotton-say
from april LIST to 18th, depending upon
the land and season.
wish to say, however, the above re-
fers to actual conditions existing here,
and do pot attempt to advise the peo-
Pile of the poorer hill lands of Mississippi
or elsewhere with which I am not ia
miliar.
Very truly,
n ID CHI pEpT