The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-08-17
S75O,OOO,OO0. ANNUAL TOLL
 0F CROP PEST
Unless Boil WeeViI Checked,
 America To Lose Place As Chief Cotton Growing Coun-
 try, Says Exchange Head MONEY USED TO FIGHT INSECT IS VERY SMALL
President Bartlett Appeals For Concerted Drive Upon Southern Enemy-Dire Need Of Warfare Is Pointed Out

NEW YORK, August 16-Southern cotton planters have suffered this season a loss approximately at pres ent cotton prices S750,000, 900 through the ravages of the boil wee vii and drought. President E. E. Bartlett, IT., of the New York Cotton Exchange, declared today In a state ment urging the use of more funds to fight the weevil
 Unless the damage done by the weevil is effectively checked within the next few years, Americas su- premacy as the worlds leading cot ton growing country is seriously threatened, Mir Bartlett declared.
 Never since the weevtl first made it's appearance in the cotton belt about 1892, has such great alarm been felt as exists today among the cotton planters" Mir. Bartlett said. After years of procrastination the national government, the state gov ernment and the leading cotton assC- citations are beginning to realize the dire need for drastic action in every section of the cotton belt to reduce the weevil menace to minimum" Money spent small.
 In view of the huge loss which annually confronts the nation MT. Bartlett said, "the amount devote to fighting the weeyil seems infinitesi- mally small"
 Tt would be great economy" he declared, land a great benefit to the nation and world to devote millions of dollars to exterminatlng this enemy of the cotton plant
 President Bartlett said the New York cotton exchange this year con tributed S100, ,000 to fight the pest and that the state of Georgia, the second largest cotton growing state, En nf calcium arsenate, considered the most effective known instrument for com batting the weevil to be delivered over period of five years. The United States Steel Corporation through Chairman Ebert H. Gary, has notified the American Cotton as- sociation, 1t would contribute s25,00O annually for the next three years to the boil weevil campaign, Mir. Bart lett said
 "The far reaching blight of the weeVil," he said, touches even the steel ties on each bale of cotton, and the crop loss this year, due chiefly to the Weevil, is estimated at about six million bales. This means that cotton growers will require 4s,000,000 fewer steel ties to bale their crop" Fordfies Itself.
 The boil weevil Mir. Bartlett as- serted is the most dangerous of pests because it so thoroughly fortifies it. self against extermination. Unfortu- nately, he said, there is a great short age of calcium arsenate and if other states were followed the example of Georgia inordering the product there would not be enough produced in the world to cover the infected parts of the cotton belt.
 Experiments to combat the weevil by using airplanes to spread poison gas over infected areas have not yet demonstrated the effectiveness of the method. MT. Bartlett said and if even tually that plan should prove success ful, it would require a fleet of hum dreds of planes and huge gas produc- tion to put it into operation of the entire cotton area.