Part 3

Where the food supply of the weevil has not been destroyed early in the fall and strength added to this blow by plowing under the corn stalks, trash, weeds and other vegetable matter that serve as hibernating quarters, and by destroying practically all of the weevils hibernating along the fence rows, hedges and ditch banks, the over-wintered weevils are often sufficiently numerous to puncture all the squares as fast as they form. Where this is the case, no bottom crop and seldom a middle crop of cotton will be made unless the weevils are picked off and the punctured squares destroyed.

The possible progeny of a single pair of weevils, during a season, has been estimated at 12,755,100. Nature has provided a number of agencies to prevent such excessive multiplication; nevertheless, the picking off of a single pair of weevils from the young cotton plants may mean millions less later on.

Before squares form on the cotton, the over-wintered weevils that have come out of winter quarters feed on the opening leaves or buds of the young cotton plants. Early in the morning it is an easy matter to find the weevils in the buds, where they can be easily picked off and destroyed.

The only reason why the weevils cannot be eradicated by thoroughly picking them off, is that large numbers of over-wintered weevils do not emerge until after the squares begin to form. As soon as the squares form, the weevil gets on the inside of the bracts and feeds only by inserting its beak deep into the squares. After the squares begin to form, it is hardly practicable to pick the weevils off.

=Destroy All Punctured Squares:= The weevils that survive the winter are all in the adult stage. They breed only in the squares and bolls and therefore cannot multiply until squares form. The most conspicuous indication of the presence of the boll weevil is the flaring of the square. When the weevil punctures a square, it turns yellow and the bracts flare open. The punctured squares usually fall to the ground in a few days.

The over-wintered weevils live only a few weeks after coming out of winter quarters in the spring, as they die shortly after breeding in the squares and bolls. Therefore, if the young cotton plants are thoroughly picked two or three times just before the squares begin to form, and every punctured square is destroyed for at least one month after the first squares form, practically all of the over-wintered weevils will be dead and hence there will be few young weevils later on. If it were possible to destroy every punctured square and boll, and thereby prevent the appearance of new broods, the weevil pest could be exterminated in one year. At any rate, the results that can be accomplished behoove every farmer to work carefully and painstakingly to destroy all the punctured squares possible before the new broods of weevils are hatched.

During the growing season, many weevils can be destroyed by co-operating with the natural agencies that tend to reduce their number. For instance, the weevils in the punctured squares that fall on the hot ground in July and August and are not shaded, are usually killed at once by the heat or will starve for lack of food, because of the hardening of the square. By using a brush on the cultivators to agitate the plants when cultivating the crop, many punctured squares will be knocked off onto the hot ground sooner than they would naturally fall off. At the same time, some of the adult weevils will also be shaken off onto the hot ground. When an adult weevil is thrown on a surface of finely pulverized, hot soil, it is killed almost instantly.

=Attempts to Destroy Weevils with Poison:= In territory newly infested with the boll weevil, attempts continue to be made to destroy the weevils by poisoning. Of course the farmers soon learn better, but the experience is very expensive. If advocates of poison would only remember that after the squares begin to form on the cotton, the boll weevils feed only by inserting their beaks deeply into the squares or bolls, they would realize that it is impossible to place poison where the weevils will feed upon it. In all the experiments performed in the field by the United States Bureau of Entomology, very heavy applications throughout the season have failed to show any advantage in the use of poison. Therefore, do not waste any money on poisons.

=Not Attracted by Light:= The weevil seldom moves at night. It is inactive after sundown. The weevil is never attracted to lights and hence the use of a trap lantern has no effect on them.

The Cotton Boll Weevil

Its History, Habits, Food Supply and Life Rate of Increase and Damage Done to Crops

=History:= The cotton boll weevil is not a native of the United States. It came from Mexico in 1892. It may have flown across the Rio Grande River near Brownsville, Texas, or it is possible that it was carried across in seed cotton. Since 1892, it has extended its range annually from fifty to one hundred and twenty-five miles until it has spread over Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and a part of Alabama.

=Life and Habits:= The eggs are laid within the squares and bolls of the cotton plant. The weevil prefers the squares and seldom punctures a boll as long as there are numerous squares to puncture. The mouth of the adult weevil is located at the end of the snout. The weevil eats a small hole into the square or boll and then turns around and deposits one egg in the puncture and seals the hole with a small drop of a gluey substance to protect the egg from ants, rain and other destructive agencies. The weevil seldom deposits more than one egg in a square or boll until the squares and bolls become very scarce. The egg hatches in from three to fifteen days, depending on the temperature. The larvae is a tiny white footless grub, with a brown head and dark jaws. This grub feeds on the inside of the square or boll and passes into the pupae stage in from six to twelve days. The adult or mature weevil develops from the pupae stage in three to ten days and eats its way out of the square or boll.

=How to Know a Boll Weevil:= The safest plan for one who is not well acquainted with the boll weevil is to send any doubtful specimen to an entomologist or to a government expert. There are a few characteristics, however, that will assist anyone in separating the boll weevil from the numerous other weevils that are often mistaken for it. On each front leg of the boll weevil are two spines--one somewhat larger than the other. The snout has a black shining appearance and the "feelers" are near the outer end. The boll weevil is usually from one-fourth to three-eighths of an inch long and about half as broad. When they first come from the square or boll, they are almost pink but rapidly turn darker until they are of a dark brown or chocolate color.

=Weevils' Food Supply:= The foliage, squares and bolls on cotton stalks constitute the weevils' sole food supply. The Mexican cotton boll weevil never feeds upon okra, peas, beans or other plants unless captured and placed in confinement and then only to a slight extent.

=Rate of Increase:= The weevils that survive the winter begin to lay eggs when the first squares form on the cotton and successive broods continue to lay eggs until checked by heavy or killing frost in the late fall. Observations made by Drs. W. D. Hunter and W. E. Hinds, show that the female weevil deposits eggs at the rate of from three to five per day and continues to lay eggs for an average of twenty-eight days. The following is a quotation from Dr. W. D. Hunter, government entomologist in charge of the boll weevil work in the South: "A conservative estimate of the possible progeny of a single pair of weevils during the season beginning on June 20 and extending to November 4 is 12,755,000."

=Life Period of Weevil:= Weevils born during the early summer live from fifty to seventy-five days. Weevils that are born late in the fall hibernate and large numbers live through the winter and for about twenty days after emerging in the spring.

=Hibernation:= The immature weevils in the squares and bolls are usually killed during the winter. All adult weevils become dormant and the well protected weevils usually live through the winter and do great damage in the spring. The adult weevil spends the winter in hedges, broomsedge, woods, hay stacks, farm buildings, decayed logs, moss and dead trees.

Rotation of Crops

A Safe and Sane System of Crop Rotation in Boll Weevil Territory Absolutely Necessary

When the boll weevil first appears in a territory, the first efforts at breaking away from all cotton usually consist in going largely into another single crop system of farming rather than the production of a variety of crops. The evils of the new system are usually as great as those of the all cotton system. Many farmers rush into the truck business. Of course, truck crops should be grown on every farm in the weevil territory, and, in some particular localities, they may constitute the main reliance for cash, but it seems that the truck business is a gamble for the average cotton farmer. Trucking has lured many a farmer to financial ruin.

The crop rotation for the average cotton farmer should include oats, corn, some cotton, and at least one leguminous crop. Along with this should go the growing of hogs, mules, horses and cattle instead of having to buy them from other sections of the country.

It is not possible for the farmer in the boll weevil territory to entirely supplant cotton as a money crop, but this crop should be supplemented with the growing of home supplies, as well as other crops which will produce cash returns.

Cotton is one of the greatest cash crops, and while it should be the main money crop in the boll weevil territory north of latitude 32, it should not be the only cash crop grown. The safest plan either within or without the boll weevil territory is to follow a system of diversified farming. The cotton farmers, especially those in the boll weevil territory, cannot afford to depend entirely on cotton as a cash crop. A system of rotation suitable for cotton belt farmers should include some of the following staple crops:

Oats are probably the surest and best paying small grain crop that can be grown over practically the entire cotton belt. The same soil that will produce one bale of cotton per acre will grow 60 bushels of oats. At the average price that has prevailed for oats during the past five years, the 60 bushels will sell for $36 to $40, and the straw, when baled, will often pay the larger part of the expense of growing the grain.

The bale of cotton per acre land will produce about $30 worth of oats, at least one and a half tons of lespedeza hay, and five bushels of lespedeza seed. The lespedeza hay will sell for about $12 per ton and the lespedeza seed for about $3 per bushel. The total is $63 per acre. We are personally acquainted with a farmer who has averaged $65 per acre for eight years.

Thirty dollars worth of oats and twenty bushels of soy beans at $1.50 per bushel, and one and a half tons of soy bean hay at $8 per ton, means $72 per acre. These are very conservative figures. At the Mississippi Delta Experiment Station in 1912 the land produced ninety bushels of oats to the acre, twenty-two and a half bushels of soy beans, "after losing a good percentage of the beans by shattering," and 5,200 pounds of soy bean hay. The average yield of cotton on the same land was about 500 pounds of lint per acre.

Oats and vetch sown together furnish more and better grazing and better hay than either when sown separately. There is no better hay than oats and vetch cut in the dough stage. Few hays will sell for a better price on the market. The oat and vetch hay provides a much more satisfactory ration for horses and mules than corn or leguminous hay.