Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-11-27
Would Have Government
Compel Planting of Cotton
After Dat Crop, So as to
Insure Late Start

with interest the article and COM
ment published in the Sunday jour
| nal of November II, headed Early
Cotton Planting Aids Weevils," by
! J. Fl. Reed, contributing to the Man-
ufacturers' Record, and excerpts
from an article by J. Hoke Tigner'
| of the Atlanta Commercial exchange.
Atlanta.
The arguments of these gentle
men are so much in line with my
| observations, that I feel constrained
| to agitate their views by indorsing
| to some extent the ideas they have
advanced on boil weevil control.
There has been so much said apd
| written about boil weevil control that
| the public looks upon every MAJ
who attempts to discuss the ques'
| ton with a great deal of suspicion,
| put him down as a crank. or as
| having something to swiEdle the cot
| ton planter with in the way Of
| patent boil weevil catcher or some
| form of poison to sell, I am SURF
| the above mentioned gentlemen 90
| not come under either OF the above
| classes, and, as for myself, I may
| be classed among the first. but
| assure you I am not of the last
Uniform Plan Needed
I am not much of a farmer, but
have been feeding the boil weeVil
ever since he took up his abode in
Emanuel county. L know there are
almost as many ideas about the con-
troll of the boil weevil as there are
farmers and up to this good time
none of their plans have been much
| of a success. I am convinced that
there must be adopted some uniform
81 nj
q plan adopted is by legislation and
law enforcement
Il is about as unreasonable to ex.
pect to control the boil weevil with
every farmer going it single handed
with his method or without any at
all, as it would be to expect a great
victory to be won in some battle by
a lot of soldiers who had been Civ
en- nusket and sent cut to fight
with instructions that each man
must use his best Judgment regard
less of orders or the other fellows
tactics.
Government Control
I feel that Mr.. Tigner is right.
II our state and government has the
right to pass laws regulating the
catching of fish and killing birds
and game on your own farm, GER
tainly the same authority shon1d
have the right to regulate the plant
ing Of cotton so that one man should
not raise boil weevils to eat up his
nelghbor's cotton as Well as his own.
1t took legislation and a uniform
method and law enforcement to
eradicate the cattle tick, by compul-
sorry dipping of the cattle, and it
will take a similar law throughout
the cotton belt to control the boil
weevil.
Mr.. Reeds and Mr.. Tigner's ideas
are demonstrated by the Florida
method. The destroying Of the first
crop of Squares from the tenth to
the twenty-fifth of June, according
to the section and climate, does
away with the eggs, grubs and
larvae in the punctured squares by
the weevils that come out of hiber-
nation and before a new crop of
squares come on, such weevils have
reached their expectancy in life |
and have died. !
The life of an active bool weevil, |
according to expert advice, is about |
forty days. When a boil Weevil |
goes into Information for the winter |
ne becomes dormant or torpid and |
the limitation of life does not run
against him until he comes out the
following spring; then when he be-
comes active, he begins to draw on
his allotted time. If he goes into
winter quarters in an impoverished |
and undernourished condition, he
may die before he comes out in the
spring. If he does not, he will |
doubtless come out and starve be-
fore he finds cotton to feed on, as it
is claimed by experts that 80 per
cent Of the weevil die from starva-
ton by June /. If he happens to
be fat and well fed when he goes
into Information, he would doubtless
come out later in the spring than
his more unfortunate brother who
would be driven out in early spring
by the pangs of hunger as soon as
he begins to warm up a little, and |
the earlier he comes out the earlier
he dies. This is the reason so much
stress is made on destroying the
cotton stalks early in the fall, so
that he will not be sufficiently |
nourished to live to see another cot
ton crop.
A Test Field /
I watched closely the activities Of |
IAlC DOIl WSSN1I tulS past SSdSOI III |
what I called a test field of cotton, |
which I planted early and intended |
to make a. crop in spite of the boil |
weevil, but did not. I planted this |
cotton the first week in April and |
the boil Weevil were in evidence in |
May long before any squares came |
on the cotton. They kept busy and |
got thicker as the plants advanced. |
visited this field almost daily, !
watching the nature of the weevil, |
and up to the last week in June I |
could find from five to fifteen wee |
wills in about thirty minutes almost |
any day.
The last. week in June I hunted |
something like an hour and could |
find but two weevils, and from the |
bright color and tenderness, I am
sure they were young ones. All the !
old weevils were gone, all by that |
time had come out of Information,
had lived out their time and had
died, but they had left thousands Of
punctured squares, many of them
with grown weeVils in them ready
to cut their way out and take up
the work of puncturing, which they
did. and came out in great numbers
daily until the entire field was /
covered.
The fact that all old weevils were
dead by the last week in June, al |
though they had plenty of food, con-
WINGED me that by that time all
weevils living through the winter 1
had reached the limitation Of life
and had all died, leaving only their
progeny to take up their work when |
they emerged from the larvae state. |
The above observations convince
me that il the planting Of cotton was
so regulated as to have the first
squares come on the first week in
July in this part Of Georgia, one appli- !
cation Of calcium arsenate would be
sufficient to make a full crop OF cot !
ton. md il YOU used no poison at all. |