The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1921-12-01
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= lug toiioWtnS story from the At
(lanta Journal should prove interest
Ing to all cotton growers:
y. ". Cochran, who lives two miles
from Marietta. Ca. grew more cot
ton this year on one-horse farm than
his neighbors did on four times the
same acreage. He lives in the midst
OF boil weevil-infested section, and
yet he took no special precaution
against the weevil, he used no cal
cinm arsenate and employed no 9TH
er poisons. 81
That is why his neighbors say
he has developed a boll-weevil proof
cottonl
Cochran got a poor stand. has poor
land on which to grow his cotton, and
used little fertilizer. and yet his yield
was at the rate OF bale and a half
an: acre. II he had got q perfect stand.
he believes that he would have grown
eight or nine bales.
The important thing about the
cotton that Mr.. Cochran has de-
veloped after six years expert
ments that 1t has boil so thick and
tough that that the weevil seems un-
able to penetrate it. Possibly he has
hit upon the thing that will save the
cotton crop Of the south.
Before picking time it was in
teresting to go through Mr.. Cochrans
cotton and see how the weevil had at
tackled these bolls in the effort to get
at the cotton, and had failed. The
bolls reminded one of battle-scared
forts, with shell holes and dents all
around.
Every boil showed where hundreds
of weevils had sunk their "borers"
into the rind, yet when the boil was
opened, clean, pretty lint was found
-unhurt in any way by the weevil.
The thickness of the rind and the
toughness of the inside lining or par
chment is the reason why these bolls
have been able to resist the weevil,
For the most part the rind on Mr..
Cochran's cotton is about one-eighth
OF an inch thick. He tells of the
number Of times he has watched wee
Wis start to bore through the rind
or how they will go down as far as
their "feelers," and then back out
and look for some other place where
the boring is easier. Almost invari-
ably the rind hsp proved too much
for the weevil.
Mr.. Cochran, h for DH.Rhas spent
even more time develop
the inside lining .BBONSmake the
rind thick. and as ;,ibbons Joe has to-
day type of cotto ypewrit,ne Of the
toughest inside limits 2ginable. II
the weevil succeeds -1.trating the
rind of this boil an (ositing its
eggs. the grub hat,l ( from this
egg will never be abb 20 reach the
heart of the boil.
The point may be raised that.
the boil weevil does not wait until
the boil is fully developed to begin
its attack and for this reason that
'ough boil will not solve the weevil
rrobiem. The answer is that Mr.. Coch-
rams field in the midst of heavily
infested district showed as high as
GO fully developed bolls to stalk
this year, and an average of 43 such
bolls.
So heavy are the locks and so pro-
lific is the cotton that w. A. Nichols
of Smyrus. declares that undr the
lbest conditions he could pick so
pounds OF cotton in working day.
and under adverse conditions he
picked 275 pounds in four and one
half hours. This boil weevil proof,
cotton averaged 1900 pounds of seed
cotton to 500-pound bale of lint
cotton this year.
Mr.. Cochran has been working for
six years to develop cotton that
would resist the boil weevil. but he
has said so little a5out 1t that few
people realized what he was doing un-
MASTERS SALE.