The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1923-12-04
vesvil Damage $3.50 Year for
Every Inhabitant. Pest Threat
ems World Famine in Staple.
All Lines of Business Affected.
Continued From Page One)

Continued From Page One)
nj ~ bales, making the average yield
80 the past three seasons roughly
o600 600 bales, as against an average
u 100000 for the preceding three
o. yl.s lTr The worlds supply of cotton
~ the end of its cotton year" last
Trly was but 100000 bales, compar-
ID With 100000 the preceding year.
In his two years the world has con-
srrred some 100000 more bales
than it has produced. In other words,
while the worlds normal require
,,arts are some 22,000,000 bales of
cotton yearly, the production this year
i not expected to be more than 49,
000 900 bales, of which the United
S+stes has managed to save from the
raTages Of the boil weevil 10,248,000
baIcs, or more than half the total
world output,
asst years yield of cotton was val
ned at $1,370,000,000; this year, due
to the world shortage and slightly
larger crop, it will be worth much
more. AS this is written the price is
a cents a pound. Last year 35,000,000
acres Welded less than 100000 bales,
whereas 10 years before the same
acreage produced 100000 bales.
This year 38,0O0,0OO were planted to
cotton, but the yield will be little more
than 100000 bales. These are
grarhic illustrations of the widespread
havoc wrought by the boil weevil
And the buyers of cotton clothing
must not forget that this staggering
loss is shifted to them, in the form of
&.
the cost of the recent coal strike and
the 10 per cent wage increase to the
miners is passed on the consumer of
hard coal.
Acute Stage Reached.
II will be seen, then, that the men
ace Of the boil weevil has reached an
acute stage; that it has become a YER
table plague upon the prosperity of
the entire country. Its widespread de-
struction of much of the cotton crop
each year is one of the reasons for
the migration northward of hundreds
OF thousands of negroes from the
cotton growing regions. This, in turn,
has forced the planters to abandon 5
per cent of the acreage this year be-
cause of boil weevil damage and
shortage of cotton pickers. So the
vicious circle continues-and the prices
OF cotton and cotton goods go to war
levels again.
The pest which causes this enor-
nous damage is about quarter of an
inch long and an eighth of an inch
wide During the winter it hibernates
like a bear, living entirely without
food in barns, haystacks, piles of cot
ton seed, hedges and the like. The
boil weevil does not emerge from its
hiding place until the young cotton
begins to show above ground, when
it Immediately attacks the young cot
ton for food. There are four or more
generations each year, each of which
lives to the ripe old age Of sixty days
but it is the larvae which accomplish
the greater part of the damage.
100000 Descendants.
Mr.. and Mrs Weevi1 may have H.
100000 descendants by the end of a
single season, and as each member
OF this hungry family can destroy a
cotton boil simply by boring into it,
the amount of destruction single
family can bring about in season
is astounding.
One of the most successful methods
vet discovered for combating the boil
weewl is being tried in Louisiana,
where airplanes are used to dust the
cotton plants with calcium arsenate
while in flight over the fields. But this
is a costly method, and the supply OF
calcium arsenate is limited. Moreover,
the Individual planter can not afford
the luxury of an aifplane, nor can he
successfully combat the pest in sin
gIe-handed fight; the battle must be
waged on a large scale
Sporadic efforts to eradicate the
Weevil have been many. but for the
most part they have been unavaillng.
Previous efforts to conserve the cot
ton crop, one Of the nations most
valuable assets, have been unsuccess-
full because there has been no unified
program. But the time has come, agree
cotton growers, bankers. merchants,
government entomologists, cotton
manufacturers, cotton seed crushers,