The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1922-01-28
TIE BOIL WEEVIL AND THE GOT.
TON OUTLOOK.

The price Of cotton in the interna-
tional market and the position of the
United States as the worlds leading
producer will ultimately be determined
by the cost of production u1d,g new
tions necessItated for * control
OF lne boil weevil. the National Bank Of
Commerce in New York believes.
''The destructiveness of the boil Wee
vii and the difficulty and cost of COM
batting it make clear the grave conse-
quences of the invasion of this insect
on the economic future of the cotton
states" the bank says in the February
number of it's magazine, Commerce
Monthly. Not only every farmer but
every banker and business man in the
cooton belt is obliged to consider the
weevil in formulating his course of
action.
THE invasion of the boil weevil into
the American cotton belt viii have an
effect on the price of cotton through
Jut tic world. This area has normally
oouced about 65 per cent of the total
cotton supply. Any factor which adds
greatly to the cost of production of q
basic commodity innicts an economic
loss. The American farmer win con-
tinue to produce cotton. How much
he will produce win depend on the eff
fects of better methods in the face OF
new conditions. Whatever the ulti-
mate effects Of the weevil on the total
American crop may be, that crop will
apparently be produced at q consid-
erabiy higher cost.
"Such progress has been made in
methods OF fighting the insect as to
offer fair assurance that it may yet
prove possible to grow as much cotton
per acre under boll weevil conditions
as before the invasion, but production
under the new conditions is much more
costly than under the old. liz .aDorI
cost of the methods necessary to con-
troll is So great that a permanent re-
iI1t. n In the acreage planted TO cot
ton in the United States seems inevi-
table
THE worlds supply of cotton and
the ultimate working out of the situa-
tion in the southern states will thus
depend to an unknown degree on the
of this higher production in
other countries. Higher cost in the
United States, however, win greatly.
change competitive conditions of pro-
duction for the international market.
The world will not lack for an AIDE
quate supply Of cotton. What the ulti-
mate effect of the boil weevil may be
as to the share of the wO ld's supply
from tho United States cannot
rs yet be foreseen."
The depredations of the boil weevil, !
the bank points out. will tend to fur /
Their crop liberalization in the south /
ern states.
Not all Of the results of the de- |
structiyeness of this insect have been |
bad" the National Bank of Commerce /
In New York says: There are ways /
In which the cotton states have bene- |
flied, but whether the sum of effects /
Is good or I'll new system of agricul- |
ture must be faced In important sec !
lions the transition has ali eady been |
made. Before the coming OF the boil /
weevl southern agriculture through /
put its history had been based on the /
one-cTop system, and since the inven-
ton of the cotton gin that crop had ,
been cotton. Wherever practiced, a |
one-crop system, regardless Of what !
hat one-crop may be. results in land |
mpoverishment and subjects an agri-
cultural population to such financial
as to make sound economic
conditions impossible.
'In those parts of the south where
he weevn is well established and has I
been most destructive, the lesson has
been learned. A county seat in Ala
aarna has raised q monument to the
ooI weevil, because the community is
II last on a sound economic founda-
ion, as result OF the abandonment Of
he one-crop system In northern
Florida, in parts of Georgia and else
where IN the areas OF earlier infesta-
ion, corn and hogs. peanuts, alfalfa,
beef cattle and dairy cows, sweet po-
atoes, soy beans and other crops are
"a soma extunt rer,Iacfues cotton