Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-01-23

one place, advances at another.
The plan sketched out by the
government calls for a series of air.
plane stations reaching clear across
he cotton belt on the boil .weevil
-ront. When you realize that a SIN
gle plane flying across this front
might destroy the weevil completely
over a swath 600 feet wide, and
when you reflect how much and
how many men it would take to do
the same work by hand, you get
some idea of the possibilities of the
new method. But it has its difficult
ties, too. The spraying, to be ef-
f%ective, must be don at night when
the dew is on the plant, it seems.
The Air Service, however, seems to
be prepared and willing to under
take the work under these condi-
tons.
Then again, the expense will he
] heavy. Calcium arsenate costs o
10 cents a pound, and enormous
quantities of it would be necessary
for this lavish method of distribu-
ton. There is no doubt h a the
work would far more than pay for
itself in the cotton it would save.
Here, as in so many other ways,
the clumsiness of modern industrial
and governmental methods
in. The throuble is that the saving
cannot be applied to the cost of the
work. If the work is to be done by
the government, it must be paid Tor
by the But the taxpayer
feels hat he is already being taxed
enough, chiefly to keep up the Army
and Navy and pay the war debts,
and if he has an of he
knows that the saving of this cot
ton is not at all sure to reduce the
Price of a cotton shirt to him. AS for
the planter, he wants the boil Wee
vii exterminated badly enough In
order that his whole living may not
be eaten up by the pest, but its COM
plete destruction does not mean any
certainly increased income to him,
In fact, a large cotton crop Is apt
to mean a low cotton price for the
farmer, so that he really cannot at
ford any extra large investment III
this work.
These same obstacles. rooted In
the stupid inefficiency of industrial
organization and political COVER
ment. are found blocking the path
of numerous projects for the FUR
therance of mans control over ma
ture, Science devises a solution oil
the DrODleIl, puI liouoIiy oi0 ~
eminent seem designed to obstruc'
putting the solution into effect. The
fact of the matter is that, while the
physical sciences have advanced
steadily since the Middle Ages, trade
and governmental methods remain
medieval il many respects. Oul
methods of regulating
our diplomacy and u wars, 1or eA'
ample, are all essentially medleVai;
we cannot stop to tni
important idea, because this IS
story about bugs. The point is tina
the airplane, if properly developer
may we'll give us control over many
kinds of insects which are now get
ting the best of us. VI court .n'
insects are slowly getting h pes
~ rs eyerywhere, and many scien
lists. especially entomologists, SCI
life as a battle for supremacy DE
tween men and the insects. In sect
devour our crops and our forests ant
carry MANY of the deadliest dlseas
es. The mosquito and h boil Wee
vii. the Hessian-fly and the Syps'
moth and a long list OF other lhsec
nests are mans most serious enc
mics.
The insects have the enormou
a~dvantage of being very small, yer
numerous and very pronnc. we can
not destroy them one by n as w
do our other natural IN
insect problem was admirably pose
by hat friend of the human rae
who, some years ago, advertised
positive method of destroying pota
to bugs. He sen to inquirers. 10
one dollar, two small blocks OF WOO
with instructions to put n potal
bug on one block and hit nm VIII
the other. :;
What must nan do, to save III
crops and his life. is to invent mean
of destroying insects wholesaie
Swat-the-fly campaigns are as inei
fectual as the above potato pul
masher. On the other hand. mos
ouitoes have been successfully dc
stroyed by flooding their breeoinl
| places with oil.
The airplane can undoubtedly de
stroy wholesale many kinds OF IN
sect pests, if science can only get !
this Instances the support 1t neeo
| from government and industry.