Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1922-07-12
Boil Weevil Situation Restated.

Clemson College, July Sat the
recent annual meeting of the Glenn
son. Board of Trustees a very inter-
esting conference was held with the
college officials in regard to the boil
weevil situation.
1t may be recalled that in 1915 the
Board of Trustees sent a commission
TO study the situation in Louisiana,
Mississippi and Alabama, and as an
Outcome of this investigation a bull
letin was published in 1916, which
with slight revisions has been print
ed and distributed off and on ever
since. The trustees have always had a
very intense interest in the boil wee
vii situation and wanted the latest
view held by the college experts.
Despite the fact that both the gov
eminent and the college have been
sending out information through the
press, county agents, specialists, bull
letins and circulars almost every day
for several months, the statements
made by the experts to the Board OF
Trustees last Tuesday are of much
public interest. In substance these
college experts made the following
statements:
We believe that the value Of early
poisoning is greatly exaggerated.
Such is the testimony by the best ex-
perimentors in Alabama, Louisiana,
Mississippi, Texas and Oklahoma,
which states have been longest infest-
ed with the weevil. Reports are now
being received from farmers from all
sections of the state, to the effect that
the weevil has disappeared from
many of their fields. Some of ;hese
fields have been poisoned with calcium
arsenate dust, some with sweetened
poison, and others not poisoned at
all. This emphasizes our oft repeated
statement that early poisoning is not
a material factor in boil weevil con-
troll.
The early weevils are but the
skirmishers of the hordes of over
wintered weevils that continue to
come from winter quarters from
March to July, They keep coming out
even after the squares have begun to
form. Most of these old weevils die
a natural death before square forma-
ton begine. Therefore, little is gain
ed, and often much lost through neg
lect of other farm operations on ac-
count of efforts to destroy these early
weevils These early weevils can be
killed by applications of any kind OF
~arsenical poison, whether in liquid or
dust form. This was demonstrated as
far back as 1902.
The weevils want squares to feed
on and lay eggs in. There being no
squares early in the season, they con-
fine themselves to the buds of the
buds of The young cotton plant and
are practically surface feeders, some
thing like the potato beetle or the
cabbage worm, only less SO. Little in
jury is done to the cotton plant from
this feeding on the bud.
If all the over-wintered weevils
would come out at the same time, as
chickens come off the roost in the
morning, then we could no doubt de-
stroy them with profit by early pois-
onings. But when we kill hundreds of
weevils with one kind of poison or
another in early spring, thousands
are still in their winter quarters
ready to come out later. By no means
of poisoning or other control meas
ures yet discovered a we kill all the
weevils that are out, and the surviv-
ors, together with those coming out
after the squares are formed, discon-
tinue feeding on the cotton buds and
begin to puncture and eat the inside
of the squares and lay their eggs
there. From this time on the only eff
fective poisoning method known is
through the use of calcium arsenate
properly applied in dust form.
General Control Methods Again
Urged.
The farmer must remember that it
is at this point that the battle for the
crop really begins. It is now that the
following control methods repeatedly
published, should be diligently and
thoroughly followed.
1. AS the bulk of the cotton crop
in South Carolina is made by share