The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1920-03-27
NO COTTON WILL Be CROWN
IN JEFF, DAVIS THIS YEAR
Finding Of Pink Boil Worm at Several
Points Puts Federal Quaran-
tine in Operation.

Parish Demonstration Agent H. c.
Fondren returned last week frtm a
conference of government agents and
officials from the Bureau of Entomolo-
gy at New Orleans, at which it was
definitely decided to quarantine all in
tested territory. The pink boil worm
having been found at several point in
this parish it was the sense Of this
meeting that no chances should be
taken that would invie further
spread of the pest.
With the raVages CT the pink boil
worm increasing from year to year it
would be only a matter of two or three
years before cotton growing would be
an impossibility, as the worm eats the
mature bOlls that have escaped the
VigilenCe of the boil weevil. It was
thought best therefore to stop the
growing of cotton in all infested ar sas
for period of three years, when the
pests, including the boil weevils would
be completely eradicated through star
walton. This was effectively done in
some Of the infested areas Of Texas,
but the outbreak here came from seed
shipped from the infested Texas cOun-
try, before the discovery of the worms
was made.
The elimination of all cotton In the
parish means somewhat of loss to
farmers and larger loss still to the
ginners who have gene to a Veey con.
siderable expense in erecting gtnner-
les and purchasing machinery, ell of
which must lie idle for the next three
years, with nothing but depreciation
of these plants olOOk to. The matter
lis probably not so bad however as it
looks at first glance as plans are under
consideration which may mean pIac
tically no loss to the farmers and very
little to the gin owners. On his ret urn
trip from the New Orleans confer
ence Mr.. Fondren visited some Of the
curing plants near Baton Rouge and
talked with farmers there who were
growing potatoes for the dry hlns,
and found that many of them found
the potato a more profitable crop than
cotton, and grown with less uncertain
ty of crop failure and with less labor
The northern markets have begun to
accept the sweet potato as an article
of food and even the real candied yams
so priced by Southern folks, but abso
lutely tabOoed by our Northern neigh
bors have begun to find favor. Pc
tatoes like rice had to be introduced
and their merits established through
the many ways of preparation, and
once the art had been acquired people
have begun to appreciate real good old
Southern yams.
By actual comparison Mr.. Fondrea
found that many acres of potatoes pro-
duced a greater money return than
cotton on adjoining lands, and as many
of tie potato fields had been planted
to oats, the harvest Of which just pre-
coded the planting of potatoes there
Was another printable crop frcm the
same lands, which could not possibly
be done with cotton. With the curing
plants handy there should be very lit
tie damage from rotting IS potatoes
placed in the drying plants just after
digging will keep 50 per cent sound.
Agent Fondren, since his return, has
called upon four or five ginners in the
parish and has their promise to con-
vert their buildings into potato curing
plants if sufficient potato acreage is
planted to justify these alterations.
Mr. Fondren says corn and peas, or
velvet and soy beans may also be
planted on parts of the cotton land
at good profit, but he is hopeful that
every farmer who contemplated plant.
ing cotton will put a part Of these
lands into potatoes so that he may be
able to arrange with the gin people