The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1918-02-08
he Boil WeeviI.

than at any time since the boil
weevil has been in this country.
We had hoped that the severe cold
last winter would end the weevil
race IN the northern cotton belt, but
II did not seem TO set him back at
all This winter the thermometer
I has gone ut least IS degrees lower
than at anv time during last winter.
I Ii this cold winter does not get the
/ weevil then indeed he is fixture in
/ the cotton belt so far az the weather
/ is concerned. There are many who
/ believe that if other bugs and flies
and worms can live through the cold
| weather that the weevil, too, will
survive No one knows yet what
/ his fate Will be. 1t seems that Prof.
! Fox. who Is a good authority on
1 boil weeyils, Is expressing the belief
/ that the cold weather will be his
finish Along this line we quote
the following editorial from the ST.
Louis Post Dispatch of last Sunday:
MORE FOOD, LESS COTTON.
70 When Prof. J. w Fox. of Scott,
cotton and cotton pests. made the
announcement the other day that the
cold wave that appeared to be such
a hardship to the South had probably
killed all the boil weevil material in
last seasons bolis, ne stirred into in
slant activity every food crop worker
in the south.
Cotton is the foe of food in the
south The negro cannot get over
his liking TO raise a crop that he can
sell for money and then have the
pleasure of spending the money. The
fact that he has more left at the end
of the year If he raises his own food.
and cotton merely as money crop,
does not appeal strongly to him.
Neither does it appeal strongly to his
white neighbor, be the latter small
or a large farmer. Every southern
farmer knows cotton and most of them |
SUI i regard 1000 crops as more OF leSS |
makeshifts for boil weeyil times.
THE food crop promoters haye |
been bearing down heavily on the boil
weevil damage. They urged and talk |
ed IL at every opportunity, and in the
light Of the recent experience, the |
weight of the argument was on their |
side. But Prof. Fox IL we'll known |
because of mis- work with the Missis- |
sippi State Agricultural staff. He has
4 Il
know It, But the food promoters as
sert that Prof. Fox saw the silver
lining at the wrong time
Prof Fox may be correct. He
may not be. 1t will take about six
or seven months Of the year 1918 to
prove or disapproye what he says.
However. there is at least an ele-
ment OF truth in what the Post-Dis-
patch says in the relation of cotton to
food growing i'm the south. We of
the south like cotton. There is
some sort of a strange lure about
raising cotton that is difficult to ex-
plain. 1t takes more hard work
and more months in the year to
grow and gather cotton than any
other crop and it is an uncertain
crop and the price is even more I'M
certain than the crop itself, and yet
we cannot get away from our love
of the cotton field. The average
man likes a game of chance and
maybe that Is the explanation. Now
if we would venture a word of friend
~ advice to the farmers of this Sec
ton, we would warn them not to
make too sure that the boil weevil
is dead. Don't 90 too heavy on
cotton, especially while the raising
of corn and other grain crops prom
ise so much in price and a surer
yield. While we are in war we must
have an abundance of food crops
and the price will, we are sure, con-
tinue to be good. We should re-
member that the farmers of this
country must produce the food that
is TO sustain the lives of our people
at home, our soldiers in the field
and a large portion of the European
That means that the
of food crops must be
heavy. And it means more. It'll,
means that if we do not produce
food crops sufficiently large to pro-
vide for those needs that the Gov.
eminent will draft farm labor and
in that way provide the necessary
food crops. All of these are mat
ters for the serious thought of our
people.-Ripley Sentinel. |,