Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-10-11
More Cotton Newt Year

IT. Hal next year COIIon crop Will ~
far ahead of the one this
year is the interesting fore
cast of Mr.. Ira Williams, poll weevil
expert of the state department of entomology
Mr.. Williams has been studying the boil weevil
scientifically for ten years or more, beginning
in Louisiana when the great destroyer reach
ed that state in it's eastward march. He Is
qualified to speak with authority concern
ing its habits and operating methods.
AS he points out, the boil weevil factors
during the 1921 cotton season were all on the
side of the boil weevil Last winter was one
of the warmest on record, that millions of
weeviIs survived the alternating period, when
otherwise the freezing nights would have kill
ed them off, In the second place, the amount
Of fertilizer used this year was among the
lowest on record, retarding the growth of cot
ton. Third, the factors of the season were
against the cotton grower and in favor of the
weevil. No wonder, then. that the ravages
are staggering; that the crop is the smallest
since the Civil War; that thousands of farm
ers are getting about enough to pay the cost
of single operation in the complicated proc
ess of cotton production.
1t is not to be supposed that the coming
winter will again be mild, as the last two
have been. Three mild winters do not usu-
ally come hand running. All weather rec
ords indicate cold weather, prolonged and
severe This will play havoc with the city
mans coal bin, but the cotton growers may
view it with smile, and grim satisfaction, for
every freezing spell when the thermometer
drops way down near the zero mark will kill
off some millions Of the cotton-killers.
One of the most effective methods Of COM
batting the boil weevil, it is further pointed
out by Mr.. Williams, is to take away from him
the places that afford q Information,
1t is mistake, say the experts, to suppose
that boil weevil can roost in loose leaves on
the ground, or in dead grass, or in trees,
and escape the cold He must have a place
that is dry but not warm, he dies; if he finds a
place that is warm but not dry, he dies. What
places, then, most nearly suited to the
WeeviIs requirements!
Stumps, logs and dead trees, agree the
experts. Places where the boil weevil may
crawl underneath the heltering bark and find
a warm spot that is also dry, folding up his
legs, wings and boring apparatus and sleep
ing snugly until spring weather sends him
forth in quest of cotton bolls, multiplying
with incredible rapidity while engaged in the
business of destroying wealth.
At the boil weevil experiment station of the
state department of entomology it has been
demonstrated this season, when all of the fac
tors favored the weevil, that cotton can be
grown by painstaking attention to all of the
precautions.
Even at the coastal plains station, in the
Sea Island cotton zone, they have produced
this season about a bale to the acre of Sea
Island cotton when all around them the Sea
Island industry was being abandoned. This
they have done by Systematically destroying
stumps in the field, logs in the field, dead
trees in the woods, cluttered fence corners
where dry, warm refuge might have been
found by the canny little insect.
On top of these precautions they have made
abundant use Of calcium arsenate for busting
purposes, thereby demonstrating once again
the effective havoc wrought by this poison
which dissolves itself in the dewdrops and
raindrops and is drunk by the boil weevil to
his instant undoing.
In certain counties of southwest Georgia
the farmers have been able to make this year
a normal Gotten crop in spite of the boil
weevil. Surveys conducted by the state de-
partment of entomology to ascertain the
cause have revealed dearth of alternating
quarters. There were other factors, such as
greater use Of fertilizer than adjacent farmers
used, and perhaps better season in certain
small spots, but the absence of stumps logs
and dead trees was more important than all
of these
Farmers in the western portion of the
belt are producing more cotton, year after
year. than those of the eastern portion, the
explanation being that the boil weevil reached
them years ahead Of it's arrival in the east,
and they have had experience in studying it's
habits and devising effective methods of COM
batting its attack. AS the scientists go on
with their experiments and as farmers in the
eastern portion of the belt become more ex-
perienced, cotton will be grown in greater
quantity in spite of the boil weev1l.
But of course it is not likely that the
south's cotton production will ever be as great
under boil weevil conditions as it would
if the destroyer had stopped in Mexico, where
it could have been stopped by immediate
quarantine when it first appeared at the Rio
Grande Yet a certain reduction of the cot
ton output Is calculated to help rather than
hurt the south, for when cotton is not raised
or is raised in limited quantity, then food
crops come in.
The south fed herself in the Civil War,
and fed and clothed an army that fought
four years. In a measure the boil weevil NAV
do for the south what the Union blockade
accomplished in that mer~ able struggle.
Roads and Roods