The Fayette falcon. (Somerville, Tenn.) 190?-current, 1919-10-24

:. !. =. !: !. !. !: j. j. !: !.
ssnamzzz E<-n thin, rose-tinted, almost
/ white caterpillar in TO-
600 acres of Texas cot
ton land; confronted with
/ the necessity of making
l. certain that in all that
" area no single caterpillar
made good its conceal
ment in boil or stalk or
leaves or grass or trash; forced TO
sveep every inch of the 10,OOO acres
as closely as a scrupulous housewife
sweeps the kitchen floor and to SIT
every pint of the sweepings as care
fully as a miser would sift dirt with
gold nuggets In it-there Is TASK pe-
side which the, one Of searching 1or
needle In q haystack appears simple
and as requiring no patience worth
mentioning.
But that is exactly what the United
States department Of agriculture, with
the help of the state authorities OF
Texas did in the campaign for the
elimination of the pink bollworm OF
cotton. 1t was done so successfully
that not a single egg, larva, or moth
of the pink bollworm appeared in 1918,
result that appears TO justify the
Characterization of the job as the Dig
gest successful chronological expert
ment of its kind in history.
When 1t was first found that the
mink bollworm of cotton had gained
a footing upon the soil of the United
States, the CONSERVATION that resulted
was hardly less than It would have
been II the discovery had been MADE
that German gunboats were coming up
the Mississippi river. But the con-
sternation was among agricultural
scientists. The general public did not
know the desperate danger. The scien-
fists knew, however. that, unless
checked. the little bollworm meant an
annual loss Of not less than $5O'OOO'
600, II, indeed, 1t did not threaten the
existence of the cotton industry, ano
their alarm was not materially less
ened because the infested area was
limited to small areas around Trinity
Bay, Beaumont, and Heane, Texas.
For the pink bollworm spreads, no
nv wards or acres, but by hundreds o
miles at a leap. The chief agent 0
dissemination being man with his rail
road trains, the distance from Texa
70 Georgia or North Carolina Is nj
great Jump. and 1t probably would no
he n direct jump. The larva woul'
be loaded into a car of cotton at Beau
mont. say, shipped to New Bedford
Mass, and left in the litter at tn
bottom of the car. which would the
90 to Brockton for load or shoe
consigned to Atlanta, and would ina
.. ly get swept out on some siding In IN
! Georgia cotton fields.
And there II would begin anew tn
! devastation that II has wrought
! Erypt. India. Japan, the Philippine
ceylon. the Straits Settlements, tn
. Hawaiian Islands. Brazil. Mexico. an
. practically every cotton-growing couI
: try on the globe except the Unite
: States. IT is the most destructive
!. all enemies of cotton. often reduclr
the yield of lint by 30 per cent an
: sometimes by more than 80 per cen
!, and greatly lessening the quantity
:, oil produced from the seed. In q
!. Hawaiian Islands the cotton indust
!. has been practically abandoned b
! cause of II. and wherever 1t has go
!. the industry has suffered terribl
That is why the department OF ag
: culture. when the worm appeared
Texas. thought II worth while TO .
: dertake n campaign out of oil prop'
= tion to the area infested