San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-01-07
PROTECT THE wEEvILA

To The Editor:
Meetings are being held in many
places in the South to devise some
means to eradicate the boil weevll but
all true friends of the South will wish
that no means will ever be found to
destroy the bool weevil, because the.
boil weeyil is the only means that has
ever been found, or ever will be found,
to keep the supply around consumptiVe
demands and thus insure the Southern
cotton farmer Of fair price for his
Hotton.
.ire bon weevil has proven a great
blessing to the Southern cotton pro-
Queer, and especially to the tenant
farmer, as the boil weeyil furnishes
the tenant farmer his only hope of
ever acquiring home. 1t seems that
Providence has given the Southern
farmer the boil weevil as an effective
weapon to fight the cotton pests of
New York that are propagated by the
governments United States Cotton
Futures Act.
Before the boil weevils covered the
cotton belt and thus reduced the crop
to within consumptive demands, my
'ssaants rarely paid out, had scarcely
enough to eat, wore very poor clothes
and went about in rickety old spring
wagon drawn by an old raw-boned
horse. How different now Now they
pay. their debts, have all they want
to eat, wear good clothes and ride
about in automobiles. Tenants now
make more money out of cotton pro-
portionately than do the landlords and
If l were tenant farmer and one of
these experts" should come around
my place to try to get me to poison
or otherwise try TO destroy the boil
weevil would chase him off the prem
Uses with green club.
If the tenant farmers of the South
average fifteen bales to the tenant
they will get from twenty-five to
thirty cents per pound for their cot
ton, and, if they have any picking done,
1T will only cost them from sixty to
seventy-five cents per hundred pounds
as the labor will be amply sufficient
to do the work, but if they average
thirty. bales TO the tenant, they will
get eight or at most ten cents per
pound for their cotton, and will be
forced to pay for much picking, which
VIII cost them two dollars per hundred
pounds, as labor will be far INSULT.
Gent for the work.
The South should strive to keep the
49," A'OLi NASSSulLS ten or at most
eleven million bales, and there is no
effective means of doing this except
through the boil weevil. Should the
South at any time in the future pro.
duce enough or more than enough
cotton to satisfy the demand for con.
sumption, the consuming interests will
not scramble for cotton when it begins
to come in as they now do, but will
stand aside, knowing full well that
the cotton manipulators of New York
will sell it below the cost of produc.
ton as they have always done in the
past.
A ten million bale crop will bring
almost twice as much money as d
sixteen million bale crop. A ten mil.
hon bale crop will bring any where
from one billion two hundred and fifty
million dollars to one billion five hun.
c-ed million dollars, whereas a six.
teen million bale crop will only bring
from six hundred and forty million
dollars to eight hundred million dol
lars. In other words, a ten million
bale crop will bring from twenty-five
to thirty cents per pound, whereas a
sixteen million bale crop will only
bring from eight to ten cents per
pound.
Therefore a ten million bale crop is
better not only for the Southern cot.
ton farmer but for the entire South
because a ten million bale crop means
from five TO seven hundred million
dollars more new wealth to the South
than a sixteen million bale crop.
w. +. MILLER.