The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1920-11-25

men in the southern half of Missis-
sippi, should be of the keenest inter-
est to business and professional men
and farmers throughout the south.
While it deals largely with boil vice.
vii history, yet it is full of sound
philosophy and agricultural advice
and fits everywhere.
In order to make this article as
brief as possible so that he who runs
may read, l have decided to treat
the boil Weevil subject under three
heads: The anticipation, the coming
and effect, the remedy.
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 72 miles west of Brookhaven
and later on when it was reported on
this side of the river, every one was
going along at the same old gait;
planting cotton and some corn, rails
ing big crops and sending the great
er portion of the proceeds north to
pay for provisions and grain.
Taken for Granted.
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
combated, reduce our yield for two
or three years and then pass on to
other fields. I had been in business
here for 80 years. I had never seen
a complete failure in all that time.
Forty per cent. of cotton crop was
our, lowest record. Why then should
we dread the boil weevil any more
than its predecessors? We would
fight it out on the old lines. We
would just trim our sails little and
fight our way through the storm.
Alas! how many dollars would have
been saved, and how much suffering
spared, and what long uphill strug-
gle would have been avoided, through
the seven lean years that followed
had we only taken the precaution to
visit the devastated regions beyond
the river! Had we only seen with our
own eyes the ravaegs of the Weevli
and then adopted the proper means
of fighting the oncoming evil. But,
we just waited and we paid the pen
atty that always follows apathy.
In the year 1908 the compress re-
ceipts at Brookhaven were $1,000
bales; in 1911 they were reduced to
800 bales. Just 10 per cent. of
full crop was all that we could har-
vest 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 demoralized, nor the merchants
alarmed until the early part of l9l0.
Then fear took possession of all OF
US. We decided to try new crops and
selected peanuts as, what we call,
money crop and made failure. The
merchants distributed II carloads OF
peanut seed and shipped away that
fall only 13 carloads Of peanuts.
Thank God, we got our seed back!
The next year we tried sorghum prln-
cipally, and some ribbon cane. We
Installed a canning factory and ship
ped our products to Wisconsin, Iowa.
and Illinois. We gained quite a rep
utation there for the best grade OF
sorghum but being an absolutely pure
grade. a quantity of it fermented and
was a total loss. The factory failed
in consequence and the growing OF
syrup as money crop was decided
failure
Much Experimenting.
In the meantime, the negroes were
moving north to the delta; labor was
getting scarce; and the supply mer-
chants were getting tired. The strain
on the financial strength Of all was
great. The farmers were trying to
raise a little cotton all this time, but
were devoting most of their acreages
to COW peas, potatoes, hay, and the
raising Of cattle and hogs, and expert
menting with money crops"
All the time, however, there was
one class Of demonstrators who were
continuously at work-the dairy d.
vision of both the state agricultural
college and the United States govern
ment. A dairy association was form
ed ii the year 1913. At the hrst