Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1916-11-10
PALMETTO STATE
STORY Of
THE BOIL WEEV|L

The report in condensed form of the
South Carolina boil weevil commission
has been received by Demonstration J.
G. oliver, in charge of the boil weevil
fight for Georgia. Mr.. Oliver urges
that this report be digested by Sumter
county people as the right thing to do
in the great battle.
Reserving details for full report at
all early date, the South Carolina Boil
Weevil Commission gives the follow
ing as the result of its investigation
Into the boil weevil situation in the
states of Louisiana, Mississippi and
Georgia.
L. That the invasion of the state of
South Carolina by the boil weevil
within year, and the general infesta-
ton of the state probably within three
years, is a certainty. No means have
yet been discovered that promise to
check or prevent the advance of this
insect pest. When it arrives it must
be regarded as a permanent factor in
our agriculture to be dealt with ac-
cordingly
2. That wherever the boil weevil
has become established the result has
been agricultural and economic panic
and resulting decentralization. Advanc-
| es to farmers by banks and merchants
| on the cotton crop have been greatly
curtailed, and values have been great
ly depressed; the negro labor has
largely left the country and the cotton
crop, the basis of credit and profit has
been, for the first few years at least,
almost completely destroyed. The re-
suit has been the loss of lands and
Eomesteads by owners, inability by
tenants to pay out and a period Of
great poverty and distress among all
classes of agricultural people.
8. That it will be impossible to de-
pend entirely as heretofore on the cot
ton crop, although some cotton of an
early maturing variety may be success
fully grown on soils especially adapt
ed to quick growth under frequent and
intensive cultivation.
Given ample labor and fertilizers
and favorable climatic conditions, a
profitable crop on reduced acreage
may be made. With unfavorable esas-
on, the boil weeyil may destroy prac-
tically the entire crop.
4. That to prepare for the coming
OF the boil weevil, merchants, bankers
and farmers should cooperate Intel
| ligent community action is necessary
to prevent this disaster due to the in
itial panics following the first crop
failure.
Farmers should begin now to live at
home, to cut down expenses, to get
free of debt and lay by a small capital
to tide over the inevitable period of re
adjustment. Wherever practicable,
the small farmer should have or OBJ
tain a milk COW and a brood SOW,
should plant a garden for the subsist-
once O fthe family, and practice upon
small scale the raising of substitute
money crops, and should support and
patronize the cooperative creameries
! ard the packing houses at Orangeburg
and Greenville, which enterprises are
established to furnish the farmers OF
the state a ready market for dairy and
meat products.
The approaching problem should be
explained to the negro labor, so that
designing agents may not succeed in
enticing it away.
Merchants, cotton oil manufacturers
al dother business men should begin
onw to provide easy markets for these
products that must in a large measure
substitute the raising of cotton.
5. That with the coming Of the Vice.
vii the first consideration should be
to retain the labor on the farm, and To
produce all possible food supplies at
home. The people of all classes
should be prepared to face with cour-
age and faith a period of readjustment.
At least one year must be lived with
restricted credit, and this first year
will be very hard one unless provis-
ion has been made to meet it in some
more substantial basis.
In the case of owners, debt may
means a sacrifice of their holdings, for
the basis of credit will be temporarily
impaired ythe depression of farm
values.
That the merchant whose husi