The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1922-07-20
The Boil Weeui
SituationRestated

recent annual meeting of the board
of trustees of Clemson a very inter
esting conference was held with the
college officials in regard to the boil
weevil situation.
1t may be recalled that in 19l D
the board of trustees sent a commits
sion to study the situation in Louis
lana, Mississippi, and Alabama, and
as an outcome of this Investigation
a bulletin was published in 1916,
which with slight revisions has been
printed and distributed off and on
ever since The trustees have al
ways had very intense interest in
the boil weevil situation and wanted
the latest views held by the college
experts.
Despite the fact that both the gov
ernment and the college have beeu
sending our 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 at the meeting are of much
public interest. In substance these
college experts made the following
statements:
We believe that the value of ear
ly poisoning is greatly exaggerated.
Such is the testimony by the exper-
imenters in Alabama, Louisiana,
Mississippi, Texas, and Oklahoma,
which states have been longest in
tested with the weevil. Reports are
now being received from farmers all
over the state to the effect that the
weevil has disappeared from many of
their fields. Some of these fields
have been poisoned with calcium ar
senate dust, some with sweetened
poison, and others not poisoned at
all. This emphasizes our oft-repeat-
ed statements that early poisoning
is not a material factor in boil wee
vii control.
The early weevils are but the skir-
mishers of the hordes Of over-winter-
ed 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 nat
ural death before square formation
begins. Therefore, little is gained,
and often much lost through neglect
of other farm operations on account
of efforts to destroy these early wee
wills. These early weevils can be kill
ed by applications of any kind of ar
senical poison, whether in liquid or
dust form. This was demonstrated
as far back as 1902.
The weevils want squares to feed
on any lay eggs in. There being no
squares in the early season, they
confne themselves to the buds of the
young cotton plant and are practical
ly surface feeders, something like
the potato beetle or the cabbage
worm, only less so. Little injury is
done to the cotton plant from this
feeding on the bud.
If all over-wintered weevils would
come out at the same time, as chic
kens come of the roost in the morn
ing, then we could no doubt destroy
them with profit by early poisoning.
But when we kill hundreds OF Wee
wills with one kind of poison or an
other in early spring, thousands are
still in the winter quarters ready to
come out later. By no manner of
poisoning or other control measures
yet discovered can we kill all the
weevils that are out, and the surVi-
vors, 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 eggs there.
From this time on the only effective
poisoning method known is through
the use of calcium arsenate proper
~ 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. 1t is now
that the following control methods
repeatedly published, should be dill
igently and thoroughly followed:
/. AS the bulk of the cotton crop
in South Carolina is made by share
croppers, the women and children
should be used to pick squares. This
should be so supervised that it is
done with great thoroughness, 9TH
erwise it has no value whatever. Be-
gin picking the squares as soon as
onv nuno+urad snuareS fall and pick