Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-02-24
BOIL WEEVIL MONUMENT
Real Facts And Not a Mere Joke,
According to Credible Witness.
HOW ALABAMA FARMERS WERE FREED

HOW ALABAMA FARMERS WERE FREED
All Kinds of So-Called Remedies Havt
Been Tried, Like Drowning Man
Grabbing at Straw and All Have
Eailed-onIy Diversifeation Brought
Prosperity. ..l.
Bennettsville Peoples Advocate.
Bennettsville, s. c., Feb. IA, 1922
Mr.. R. L. Freeman, City,
Dear Sir: Find inclosed letter from
Mr.. R. o. Fleming, of Ala. Perhaps II
you will publish this letter it may be a
help to our farmers. Surely those peo-
ole know what they are talking about,
and it looks to me like those speakers
II. the courthouse had an axe to grind
when they said fertilize heavy In order
to keep the bolls green and tender for
the weevil to feed on. I think 1t would
be very foolish for us to buy fertilizer
to grow something to feed the weevil
on. Our only hope as, I see 1t, Is to
plant the earliest cotton we can get,
plant early, cultivate fast, and make
some cotton before the weevil multi
plies and becomes plentiful. We want
our cotton to ripen in August and Sep
tember. We had rather perish him
than to feed him. I don't think there
are many people in Marlboro county,
who are able to buy fertilizer to grow
something to feed boil weevils on. So
don't think it is good idea to put all
your eggs in one basket. We will not
plant everything in cotton this year.
Yours very truly,
H. H. Hubbard.
Mr.. FIemins's Letter.
Enterprise, Ala, Feb. 9th, 1922,
Editor Pee Dee Advocate, Bennetts-
vile, s. C.
Dear Sir: In clipping from your
paper, which I hand you herewith, my
attention has been called to state
ment made by one DR.. Maloney, d.
rector Of the Government Laboratory,
in an address that he made recently to
a delegation Of farmers and business
men of your community, stated that In
referring to letter written by Mr. w.
e. Hubbard Of this county to his
brother H. H. Hubbard, one Of your
citizens, was entirely false and did not
carry with it the facts.
The remedy that Mr.. Hubbard here
gave his brother residing there to COM
bat the boil weevil was absolutely cor
rect. The farmers in Coffee county are
among the most progressive to be
found in any section Of the state and
they are in position to advise the
farmers in Georgia and the Carolinas,
If they really want some real results
in combating the boil weevil.' There
is one way and only one to play havoc
with the bug and in the end keep the
wolf from the door, and that plan is
to diversity.
Yes sir the farmers in Alabama, like
all other cotton producing states, were
slaves to cotton until the approach OF
the boil weevil, which first made its
appearance in the Wire Grass section
of Alabama in the fall Of 1915. Going
deeper and deeper in debt every year
and not raising enough corn, potatoes,
cane, and meat for home consumption
featured cotton, cotton every year even
planting the fence jams, but after
learning an expensive lesson trying TO
combat the weevil on through the
years namely 1915, 1916 and 1917, the
Coffee county, Ala, cotton crop was
cut from thirty-five thousand bales TO
less than ten thousand bales, and while
I do not say positively what the yield
finally got down to, but it was slipping
fast to an outcome of nothing. Not
enough raised to pay land rents.
After the farmers were completely
broken up and every thing mortgaged
trying to combat the boil weevil, tney
conceived the idea of planting peanuts
and raising other farm products, such
as corn, potatoes, cane, although
featuring peanuts and raising hogs and
cattle and they went from one extreme
to another, as Coffee county, Alabama,
raised and marketed, 1 am told, more
than five million bushels of peanuts IN
1918 and the same amount in 1919 and
they realized more out Of these two
peanut crops than they ever realized
out of four cotton crops. The Doll
weeyil, which one time seemed to be
the worst peril that ever visited any
community, proved to be blessing IN
disguise. More than once the writer
saw a solid train load of cattle and
hogs shipped out Of the sidings at En-
terprise for the markets in the middle
west, and the whole country was a
rolling mass Of prosperity
Yes sir, the poison calcium arsenate
has been used here, and in fact all
other conceivable methods have been
tried out through this section, but the
results were that the boil weevil ate