Watauga Democrat. [volume] (Boone, Watauga County, N.C.) 1888-current, 1924-01-17
WINTRY WEATHER PLAYS HAVOC
IN RANKS OF THE BOIL WEE'VIL
MILLIONS OF DOLLARS ESTIMATED SAVED FARMERS OF THE
COTTON GROWING STATES BY RECENT COLD
WEATHER-WAS WORTH TONS OF POISON
A Concord dispatch says:


Plumbers, coal dealers and garag,
men were not the only class of la
borers who benefited from the cole
weather which swept over this sec
tion of the country recently, CAUSING
water pipes to freeze and burst. co;
supplies to decrease with unpleasant
Tapidity and auto radiators to freeze
Claiming even greater benefit thar
these from the cold are the farmer:
who feel that millions of boil weevil:
were killed ana millions more depri,
ed of birth by the wintry weather
that carried mercury the lowest since
1918.
Local authorities wise in the ways
OF the weevil declare they are unable
to place definite estimate on the
money saved by the weevils destroy.
ed, but they estimate that millions
OF dollars were saved throughout the
cotton belt and that the benefits re.
sulting the freeze far outnumber the
damages.
Weather like that of Saturday and
Sunday when the mercury for hours
f1irted with the zero mark, was un-
doubtedly very damaging to the
weevils hibernating in and near cot
ton fields, one cotton expert of this
county pointed out, and he expressed
the opinion that the freezing
weather was worth tons of poison
that would have been applied to the
crop after it began growing.
"In order to live through the win
ter months" another expert pointed
out, "the alternating weevil must
eliminate a certain per centage of his
body moisture. Under favorable
dry weather the .weevil is able to do
this, but rains penetrate to his hiding
place--under the bark of stumps, in
straw and stalks of last year plants
and other places and if the damp
spell is followed by freezing temper-
ature the weevil freezes and bursts
like so many of the water pipes in
the cities have DONE"
r. d. Goodman, county farm agent
for Cabarrus county, declared that
while the cold snap undoubtedly kill
ed many weevils, this fact does not
mean that the weevil is necessarily
wiped out. Under the ordinary wealth
er conditions, Mr.. Goodman pointed
out, only a few Of the weevils which
take cover in winter survive, but the
fewthat do survive can multiply so
rapidly that it is not impossible that
the 1924 crop will be damaged by
them.
The severely cold weather Of 1917
1S, Mr.. Goodman stated had some
thing to do with the delay Of the
weevils in reaching the Piedmont
sections, but there is great difference
between such weather as the south
experienced that winter and the wea-
ther so far this winter. If the
weevils that do survive. the rigors of
the winter are favored with cloudy
rainy weather during the month of
July, the weevil army will be as large
as ever and may accomplish as much
damage to the 1924 crop as it did to
the 1922 and 1928 crops, Mr.. God
man said, adding in conclusion that
without question millions of dollars
had been saved to the southern far
mer by the icy blasts which swept
from the north Saturday and Sum-
day.
In North Carolina the mercury was
lowest at points where no cotton
was raised, but for the entire state
the temperature was unusually low.
In this and other cotton growing
counties of the Piedmont section the
mercury was only a few degrees
above zero at the highest, and what
is true of this state is true of other
states which produce large cotton
states which produce large cotton
crops. Even in Texas where millions
of bales are raised each year, unu-
sually cold weather prevailed last
week, and from the Lone Star state
to northern Florida, then up the At
lantic seaboard and across the south
eastern states, the wintry winds car
ried their intense cold to practically
every cotton producing state in the
south.