Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1922-11-09
AERIAL POISONING OF
/ COTTON BOIL WEEvIL
By c. A. WHITTLE, Atlanta. Ga.

At Tallulah, La, the United States
Department of Agriculture has
Laboratory for the study of cotton
boil weevils. Tallulah was selected
as q. site for the laboratory because
the region around looked like boil
weevil paradise-and it is. In this
,favoring habitat, it was reasoned that
if the weevil could be whipped, the
methods employed would be equal to
the job of whipping it anywhere.
! To the Tallulah region with its
bayous, jungle growth, typical cotton
plantations and starchless summer
temperature, B. r. Coad, entomolo-
gist and his scientific assistants came
and buried themselves in their great
task of solving the problems of boil
weevil control. While many are
summering in the mountains or at
the beach, these boil weevil investi-
gators are humpted over in the blist-
ering cotton fields, in quest of more
and more knowledge of the habits Of
the insect.
Now and then these scientists have
arisen to proclaim discovery and
each bit of knowledge thus acquired
they have employed to perfect their
designs in circumventing the weevil.
Out of the study and toll of years
has come poison known as calcium
arsenate and also machines by which
the poison can be properly applied.
These are the implements of boil
weevil warfare.
Success has been won. The cotton
farmer is the recipient of simmeasu-
rable benefits from the discoveries
made in solving this insect control
problem which is admitted to be one
of the most difficult ever encountered
by entomologists.
! But the scientists are still exploring,
seeking to find if improvements can
be made on existing means of COM
bat.
| When the scientific world learned
that B. R. Coad had requisitioned
aeroplanes for use at the Tallulah
station there was some wondering if
DR.. Coad had not succumbed to the
strain and if he were not manifesting
a tendency to flightfulness.
/ He has learned to ride the airy
steed and has flown above the clouds
long distances to direct public dem
onstration in poisoning boil weevils,
but no evidence of other flightiness
has shown up in DR.. Coad's conduct.
| The writer witnessed demonstra-
ton of boil weevil poisoning from an
aeroplane directed by DR.. Coad at
SCOTS Station, Miss, to which place
his party had driven in two planes
from Tallulah.
| The plane swung to a position a
few feet above the cotton field, releas-
ed stream of dust that suddenly
shot forth and ducked with great
commotion into the cotton field inn
PEELED downward and sideward by at
mospheric currents created by the
propeller of the aeroplane. al
Almost before one could catch his
breath the aeroplane had crossed the
field, clipped off it's tail of dust and
was circling for return. The cal
cium arsenate it left behind was boil
ing among the cotton stalks and
spreading over strip from thirty to
forty yards wide.
Directly there was another whirr
and in an incredibly short time anoth-
er strip of cotton thirty to forty
yards wide was seething with this
poison dust.
The acreage that a plane could
cover in an hour would be enormous
if the field was long and the turns
of the aeroplane were few, or if all
the cotton farms in community could
be swept across at each straight away
flight. !.
as there anything practical about