The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1914-11-04


touch with all the government peo-
pie making the fight against the boil
weevil and they all agreed in every
humid climate that the boil weevil
would go to the extreme northern
part of the cotton belt. There is no
question but what in Texas it bank
rupted half the farmers who tried to
grow cotton and the same in Louis
lana.
have never yet seen a people who
did not say that the boil weevil would
do no harm in their latitude. In 1906
when 1 visited Wilkerson and Adams
counties, Mississippi, the people were
almost unanimous in the belief that
the boil weevil would do them no
harm and when l went to Laudcrdale
county the same year the people there
rldiculed the idea that the boil weevil
could come through the piney woods
to them. Yet we find cotton produc-
tion in Adams county reduced in two
years from 14,155 bales to 1,O62
bales; in Wilkerson county from H.
720 bales to 936 bales. We find that
hundreds OF farmers throughout the
boil weevil territory of Mississippi
have lost their homes; that many of
the bankers and merchants have gone
down with them. This same condi-
ton has prevailed wherever the boil
weevil has been, yet in all this terri
tory we find few people-a very
few-who have met with success, the
greater majority going down.
Now, in all the boil wecvil territory
after five or six years, the country
again becomes prosperous, but we
find that it is on other lines, and with
a different set of people. We find
new faces and new landholders in all
of these counties Land values have
deprecated from $35 per acre to even
below IS and with all this misery and
ruin in south Mississippi the State has
never attempted to do anything to re-
lieve this distress.
So surely as we live, this condition
will prevail in Alabama, Georgia,
Florida and North and South Caro-
lima. In our coast countries the cli-
mate is very humid and very mild.
In the northern part of Mississippi
in 1911 the boil wecvil covered the
entire State and even went into Ten
nessee. and most people think that
the zero winter destroyed and caused
the wcevil to disappear. This isn't
the case. The boil weevil were pre-
cedcd two or three weeks by the
army worm. All Of the squares and
bolls were destroyed by the army
worm and the grown bolls were SO
hardened by the sun that the boil
wecvil could not puncturc these bolls
and they had no place whatever &c
reproduce themselves.
1 hunted faithfully every day Of tho
world during the entire fall and never
year the condition has been reversed
The weevil preceded the army worm
and the young weevils can be founG
not only in the young bol,s, but also
in the grown bolls, and no matter
how cold the winter is, we will have
the boil wccvil with us next year, even
TO hn
has this year done serious damage
as far north as Lafayette county.
In 1904 l attended boil wecvi
convention at Shreveport, La, and i,
was proposed at that time to take the
entire state Of Texas Out of cotton:
but the government was expected to
do this and did not respond and tho
agricultural commissioners of the va.
rious States have at several meetings
considered the possibility of taking
out one State and fighting the boil
weevil back. On account of the OK
pense this is impossible.
We now have the opportunity to
accomplish this without cost and car
even make money by the operation
and L am not willing to perpetuatC
the boil wccvil and have il a burden
on my children and I do not think my
neighbOr has the right, because h,
says he can grow nothing else but
cotton, to perpctuate this pest. | fee
sure that if he will look at it in The
right light he will see that it is best
for him to learn to grow Somethin.
else for at least one season auG
thereby bring about an evcrlastin.
benefit to the entire country.
Some years ago the government
! made report on cotton growing m
Mexico and it showed conclusiNcly
that the method of fighting the boil