The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1919-12-25
Ravaee of Boil Weevil in Georgia
Effects Of Insect as Seen By Member Of South Carolina
Farmers Who Toured Infected District in Automobile.
BY Shelley S. Williams.

BY Shelley S. Williams.
Without doubt one of the upper
most questions in the minds Of all cot
ton farmers in South Carolina today
is the effect the boil weevil will have
upon next years cotton crop. With
this question unanswered in my
mind, / suggested to our teacher OF
agriculture at Norway that we get a
party. of farmers and business men OF
our community and make a tour OF
south Georgia, where the weevil has
been several years, and see the true
conditions in the weevil district, first
hand. We have plenty Of weevils at
Norway, so we did not go to see them.
What we wanted to investigate was
the effect Of the weevil on the cotton
crop, upon the morale of the people
Upon the bankers. farmers, and mer-
chants, in the weevil district. we
wanted information, first hand, from
the people who were confronted by
problems similar to our own. and
from whom we could get experience
before our own experience cost us toe
dearly With this idea in view we sci
out with open minds, with notebooks
and with determination to seek such
information as would benefit us in
confronting the boil weevil on ouI
own farms in our stores and in oul
banks.
Our party was composed Of repre-
sentative business men of our section
as follows: w. j. Bass, farmer; J. "
Brown, farmer; H. P. Fulmer, mer-
chant, banker and farmer; B. T. Gar
rick, farmer and ginner; j. j. Smith
| farmer; J. T. Walker, farmer; B. o.
Williams, teacher of agriculture; j
w. Williamson, merchant and farmer
IS. S. Williams, merchant, farmer and
fertilizer manufacturer. We had just
such a party of interested business
men as any small farming town in
South Carolina contained. We re
Gently returned from our trip on
which We interviewed quite number
of bankers, farmers and merchants
We travelled 700 miles in two auto.
mobiles, stopped at farms, banks
country stores, city stores, livestock
farms, warehouses, etc. While not
claiming to be expert investigators. W
believe We secured a fair knowledge
! of what the boil weevil has done for
south Georgia, and what we may ex-
pect it to do for our section in the
near future. To those who doubt that
the boil weevil is power for devasta-
tion we invite them to take similar
trip and be convinced as we were. TIC
those who can not spare the time we
gladly give of our impressions in the
following summary of what We saw
heard and think of Mr.. Weevil after
he has taken things in his own pos
session.
We went by Augusta, Macon, Am
ericus. Dawson, Albany, Moultrie,
Triton, Hawkinsville, Dublin and back
to Augusta. From Augusta to Macon
we found that the weevil had been
there only one year and had not yet
done its greatest damage. Near Mil
iledgeville we found fss-oars who said
they had been cut Ave- 40 bales
per plow the second year. From Ma
con down through south Georgia and
back up to the Dublin section we
found the weevil damage the greatest.
Miles of Disaster.
1t was the unanimous opinion of all
our party that through 400 miles OF
our trip, south of Macon we did not
see one cotton field which we thought
made enough to pay the fertilizer bill.
II was complete knockout for any
profit on cotton through this section.
The season was ideal for the weevil
The rain and weevil, in the opinion OF
south Georgia farmers, went $3.50 in
making a clean sweep of all cotton
profits. We met one farmer in the
road near Dublin, whose field nearby
was an awful sight. On asking him
we received the reply: HE eat us
up" And from the appearance of his
field he told the truth. We saw hun
dreds upon hundreds of acres of cot
ton fields with large stalks and only
four or five bolls to the stalk. Besides
there were countless stalks with
scarcely boil on them. For miles we
saw field after field that had plenty
of weeds to make over a bale per
acre that did not produce over 200
pounds of seed cotton per acre.
Where there were any bolls at all
they were located on the limbs Of the
weed, near the ground the fruit
that had developed early, before the
weevil got so bad.
We found that where the crop was
planted late that the weevil did its
greatest damage. At one place a
farmer told us that last year on three
acres he had made four bales of cot
ton. This year only $50 pounds of
lint on the same ground with as much
work and more fertilizer. Another
farmer who heard his statement re-
piled: Eyes, but you did not plant
your cotton until late in April The
first farmer agreed that was true. We
were then told that some farmers in
that section who planted early had
made as much as eight bales per
plow.
We asked a number of farmers if
they were going to quit cotton. The
Iinvariable answer was mo" They ex-
pect to plant cotton right on, but not
all cotton. They intend to plant five
or ten acres to the plow, and in adj
dition other crops. Cotton will still be
one of their money crops, but not the
only money crop. A farm demonstra-