The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1921-09-08
WEEVIL DAMAGE
AMAzES VISITORS
TRIP BY YORK COUNTY FARMERS
BRINGS REVELATION.
In Infested Area.
Growers Who Did Not Go Through
Territory Told of De-
vaStatiOn.

York, Sept. "a gloomy picture
of crop conditions in lower South
Carolina as the result of the ravages
of the boil weevil was drawn by John
R. Blair, York county demonstration
agent, who has just returned
from an automobile trip, along with
Is other York farmers and business
men, through the weevil infested ter
ritory. The party visited Swansea,
North, Springfield, Blackville, Barn
we'll and Allendale on their journey
southwark, returning by Bamberg,
Orangeburg, st. Matthews, Colum-
bia, Camden and Great Falls. The
object of the trip was to gather first
hand information concerning the ac-
tual depredations of the pest and the
best methods of combating it, so that
York farmers may not be altogether
unprepared against it's attack next
summer.
"Much as 1 had read and heard of
the boil weevil's destructive work, l
was not prepared for what l saw,
declared Mr.. Blair today in discuss
ing the situation in the lower part or
the state as revealed to him on the
trip. "The pest has simply played
havoc with the crop on the best
farming lands in the state and the
actual extent of the damage can not
be accurately determined until the
remnant of the crop it has left mas
been gathered. We saw the work
of the weevil at it's worst around
Blackville, Allendale, Fairfax, North
and Swansea, though it was bad
enough through all the other terri
tory traversed. Taking the crops
everywhere visited into consldera-
ton, the consensus of opinion among
our party was that the yield will be
about bale to every six acres. And
this, too, remember, on splendid
farming land despite aggressive
measures to combat the pest.
81. Skottowe Wannamaker, OF ST.
Matthews, president of the American
Cotton association, told us that MS
farming operations this year repre-
aented an investment of $4,000 and
that he would sell for 10 per cent.
on this. F. E. Cope, one of orange
burg's big farmers, estimates his
WELD this year as $50 bales against
700 in 1920. He has cut his acreage
q little and used less fertilizer but
the principal reason for the curtalled
production is the boil weevil. w. W..
Wannamaker & Sons, plant breeders
and scientific farmers, have suffered
q heavy loss, despite the most mod
ern methods to grow a crop IN the
face of the weevil.,
sThe heaviest sufferers, though
are the one and two horse farmers,
and their plight is indeed deplorable
They will make only one or two bales
to the plow and it will take the most
of this to pay their fertilizer bill.
All they will have left is their corn'
peas and sweet potatoes and they
did not devote enough acreage to
these crops to produce an abundant
crop of foodstuffs. They are facing
the hardest kind of hard times
something our farmers here know
yerv little about. A BarnwelI banker,
Mr.. Calhoun, is arranging to finance
the small farmers on a new crop
svstem-that Of considerable acre
age in wheat, oats, rye and other
similar crops.
"Everywhere we went in the low
country the farmers realize that the
old system of subordinating every
thing else to the production of cot
ton will have to be advanced. They
plan to curtail the cotton acreage
extensively next year and to grow
more wheat, peanuts, sweet potatoes
hogs and cattle. The change from
all cotton to diversifcation and live
stock growing is no longer optional
with them; is it obligatory"
Despite various experiments and
considerable work in that direction,
no effective method of controlling the
boil weevil has yet been found, ac-
cording to Mr.. Blair Some of the
farmers in the weevil territory, he
said, thought they were winning
their fight against the invaders last
June. when it was dry, by gathering
the damaged squares and destroying
them, but the frequent rains in July
stopped this work, and enabled the
weevil to quickly get the upper hand.
An early and quick maturing crop
Continued on page 4, column 81