The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1920-03-30

The pink boil weevil is worse
than the ordinary boil weevil," con-
tinued Mr.. Meredith. He takes
what the regular boil weevil has left.
More than 5000 acres of cotton land
in eastern Texas have been cleared
of cotton plants and leaves in order
to check the spread of this insect. We
have told the authorities in that state
to cut out cotton in certain areas, and
if they do not do it, we expect to
quarantine the entire state, so that
the pest may not spread to other
sections"
During the course Of .his speech,
Mr.. Meredith warmly congratulated
the state on having as one of its
senas sors, E. D. Smith, who "shows
more interest il. the agricultural bill
than any man l can call to mind,' y
said Mr.. Meredith. He also referred
to Governor Cooper's interest in
farming.
Numerous instances were given in
which employees of the department
have been offered far more attractive
salaries by various concerns, and IN
many instances the men have resigned
: in order to 60 into more remunera-
tive work. He spoke of the eradica-
ton of cattle tick, of the work done
in checking hog cholera and of the
experiments in preventing tubercu-
losis among cattle. Experiments in
controlling cotton gin fires caused by
static electricity were being conduc-
ted by the department, Mr.. Meredith
said, and ground wires had been used
most successfully.
Roasts Congress.
The miserly policy pursued by con-
gress in making appropriations for
carrying on the very growing work
of the department was roundly scored
by Mr.. Meredith. He told Of cuts in
appropriations, of the fights that had
to be made to retain in the appropria-
ton bill funds providing for the en-
ployment of extension agents, of low
salaries paid to men who have saved
the country thousands of dollars, and
of the loss of the services Of valuable
men who were inadequately compen-
sated.
Last year we shipped to Switzer-
land two car loads of Swiss cheese.
We have learned how to make Rogue
fort cheese, product which hereto
fore has been made exclusively from
goats milk in France. They would
put the goats milk in an old cave and
let it spoil. If it spoiled right it was
Roouefort cheese 1t it spoiled wrong,
| it wasn't-and that was about all
they knew of it. The man
! that discovered the secret of this
cheese was a $4,000 man. When ne
was offered $1,000 by dirty con-
Germ he stayed with the department.
When the figure was raised to $4,000
he Quit. We are now experimenting
with a cotton that will be equal to
sea island cotton. We have seed for
about 4,0O0 acres for the experiment
and next year we will have seed for
about $4,000 acres. The seed must
be kept pure, but we have no money
to carry out our plans.
Cost Of Cotton.
Nobody has known just how much
it costs to raise pound Of cotton.
But the department." said Mr.. Mere
dith, undertook to find out, and we
have learned that the average cost
for 1918 was % cents per pound. The
cost varied from eight cents to S1.03
per pound. 1t is interesting to note
that IS per cent of the cotton on the
farms studied, representing 80 OF the
producers, was grown at a cost OF rs
cents per pound. The average selling
price that year was 20 cents and even
at this price one-fourth of the farmers
produced their cotton at loss.
Owing to reduced yields and increas-
ed wages, the cost of producing the
1919 crop was considerably more than
that for 1918," said Mr.. Meredith.
Asks for Cooperation.
when you have problem on
which YOU want help, call on your
department of agriculture. We have
vast organization eager to assist IN
solving agricultural problems. We
are studying cooperative selling and
stenciling cotton so that the buyer
will not have to take samples, and we
are studying many other problems
which directly concern you. II we