The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1920-11-11
COMING OF THE WEEVIL.
The Things to Do to Meet the Weevil
is to Adopt the Policy that Would
BE Most Sensible Even if the Wee
vii Were Not a Threat.

lppi, should be of the keenest inter-
est to every business man, profession
al man and farmer In the south.
While it deals largely with boil Wee
vii history, yet it is so full of sound
philosophy and agricultural advice
that it fits everywhere. Mr.. McGrath
knows what he is talking about he
has been through "the fire.
I'm order to make this article as
brief as possible so that he who runs
may read, 1 have decided to treat the
boil weevll subject under three heads:
The Anticipation, The Coming and
Effect, the Remedy.
1.-The Anticipation-The first great
mistake made by our farmers and
business men was their indifference
to the gravity of the situation. Even
when the boil weevil reached the
Mississippi river which is u miles
west of Brookhaven-and later on
when it was reported on this side OF
the river; everyone was going along
at the same old gait; planting cotton
and some corn; raising big crops of
cotton and sending the greater por-
tion of the proceeds north to pay for
provisions and grain.
"None of us realized the greatness
of the danger. We thought it would
treat us like all the other cotton pests
which we had so successfully COM
batted-reduce our yield for two or
three years and then pass on to other
fields. I had been in business here
for thirty years. I had never seen
complete failure in all that time. For
ty per cent. of a cotton crop was our
lowest record. Why then should we
dread the boil weevil any more than
it's predecessors? We would fight it
out on the old lines. We would just
trim our sails a little and fight our
way through the storm.
Alas! how may dollars would have
been saved and how much suffer-
ing spared; and what a long up hill
struggle would have been avoided,
through the seven lean years that fol-
lowed, had we only taken the precau-
tion to visit the devastated regions
beyond the river. Had we only seen
with our own eyes the ravages of the
weevil and then adopted the proper
means of fighting the oncoming evil;
but we Just waited and we paid the
penalty that always follows apathy.
1.-The Coming and Effects-In the
year 1908 the compress receipts at
Brookhaven were $1,000 bales; in
1911 they were reduced to 3,100
bales. Just ten per cent of full crop
was all that we could harvest at the
end of three years. The drop was
rapid after 1909. That year we made
about 1900 bales of cotton; in the
year 1910 about $500 bales; and
then the most complete failure. The
farmers did not begin to get demor-
allied, nor the merchants alarmed,
until the early part of 1910. Then
fear took possession of all of us. We
decided to try new crops; and Sc
lected peanuts as what We call, al
money crop, and made failure. The
distributed eleven car
loads of peanut seed and shipped
away that fall only thirteen carloads
of peanuts. Thank God, we got our
seed back! The next year we tried
syrup, sorghum principally, and some
ribbon cane. We installed canning
factory and shipped our product to
Iowa, and Illinois. Wei
gained quite a reputation there for
the best grade of sorghum, but being
all absolutely pure grade, quantity
of it fermented and was total loss.
The factory failed in consequence and
the growing of syrup as a money crop
was a decided failure.
I'm the meatime, the negroes were
moving north to the delta; labor was
getting scarce; and the supply mer-
chant and bankers were getting tired.
The strain on the financial strength
of all was great. The farmers were
trying to raise little cotton all this
time, but were devoting most Of their
to cowpeas, potatoes, hay,
the raising of cattle and hogs, and
with money crops"
"All the time, however, there was
one class of demonstrators who Were
continuously at work-the dairy di-
visions of both the State Agricul-
ture college and the U. S. govern
ment. A dairy association was form
ed in the year 1913. At the first
meeting there were just nine persons
two demonstrators, sew
en- farmers and myself. But we or
ganized, and three years afterwards
the meeting of the same association
packed the city hall (capacity of
hall 450) to its uttermost.
I'VE now have two creameries here
and the combined output amounts to
S75O,000 a year. Permit me to state
here that the great success of the
dairy business in our section was not
due to my efforts. l was only a mod
est booster. During the year 1914,
Mr.. F. F. Becker, an eX-banker, took
charge of the creamery. He spent
most of his time the first year of his
management in blackboard going
from farm to farm, explaining the
wonderful possibilities of the indus
try. He built it up. Success begets
success! The second creamery was
installed a short time afterwards.
I'VE commenced to climb the hill