The dispatch-news. [volume] (Lexington, S.C.) 1919-2001, 1922-07-26
CCKER DISAGREES
WITH CLEMSON EXPERTS
Hartsville, S. c., July Is, 1922

Hartsville, S. c., July Is, 1922.
To the Editor:
notice appearing in all OF the daily
and weekly papers this week an
article from Clemson College purport-
ing to give advice to the latest ana
most approved methods OF handling
the boil weevil.
am sorry to take issue with the
ueev;l experts of the College on this
matter but feel compelled to do so as
nv own experiments and those Oh
manv of the best farmers in the
State lead me to differ from them in
important particulars. Clemson Col
:egs is supported principally by the
farmers of South Carolina and 1 sub
init that where there is important evil
dence available from many of the
best and most reliable farmers in the
State, it should be given at least equal
weight with that OF the expert
n1enters in Alabama, Louisiana, Miss
issippi. Texas and Oklahoma.
The boil weevil has been in South
Carolina for several years during
most of which time the Government
and college experts have advocated a
method Of weevil control which was
expensive, which required much judg-
ment in it's application and which in
volved night work. Besides in prac-
tice last year the Government method
proved to be dangerous in that some
crops were severely damaged by plant
lice after two or three applications of
the calcium arsenate in dust form.
/ have abundant evidence that the
early poisoning OF the weevils by the
molasses-calcium arsenate method is
a success and is so cheap and simple
that it can be put into universal prac-
tiee. 1 think it fair deduction
from the results obtained that, when
put into universal practice, it will
greatly delay the rapid increase of
weevils and allow the whole crop to
fruit for some time longer than when
early control methods are not applied.
The experience of Mr.. McDuffie,
farm manager for Ex-Governor Il. l.
Manning on his Meredith place. is
sufficient on this subject although it
is confirmed by practically every
other farmer who used the molasses
treatment in time. Mr.. McDuffie
poisoned his worst infested field of
10 acres on or about May "a, at which
time there were no squares upon the
cotton. Up to that time he had
picked weevils from this field fire.
quently and upon the day Of poison
Ing was getting at the rate of about
200 weevi:s per acre. Mr.. McDuf-
fie poisoned this field several times
between May "a and June 81, on
which day he told me that he had
frequently and carefully examined
thish field during that interval (May
"a to June 27) and had sent hands
into it to search for weevils, also that
Ex-Governor Manning had been with
him on at least one occasion search
ing for weevils, that he had been un-
able to find a single live wecvil in
this field during that period that he
had been carefully over the field dur
Ing the past few days and had found
hut two small spots in which
squares were being punctured. (These
Of course he had carefully picked
up.) The cotton referred to was
planted in March and was carried to
the end of the period oe weevil emer-
gence with practically no infestation
or damage. About one week later
Mr.. McDuffie told me that he had
ShSI p4O"SO OSSl d ot-dCiS 1lolQ ana
had offered his plow hands sc for
each punctured square. They had
turned in about 100 squares or 1-2
squares per acre.
I could quote Messrs. W. A. and
Geo. Stuckey Of Lee Coz nty, J. w.
Goodson and r. P. Gillespie of
Hartsville, A. H. Roger; of Society
Hill besides my own force of expert
menters and a host of other farmers
in this section to the effect that ap-
plications of the molasses mixture
applied for the first time from May
% on up to June - and even later
upon cotton which was at the time
ba( y infested with weevils resulted
in the prompt and practically total
destruction Of the weevils.
ic hor5Iv