Part 5

We are not afraid of these early rains; it is the late rain, because if the planter now follows our plan and picks up the squares for a month, the weevils will be pretty nearly exterminated. In fact, if everybody would do it the weevil would do very little damage. But when there is a period of continuous rain after the plant has nearly matured, it is a much more difficult problem to handle. The sun has less access to the plant and it is more difficult to secure all the fallen squares.

The greatest problem with which we have had to deal in boll weevil territory is the hopeless view of the farmer. He wants to plow up his cotton and put in something else, or he refuses to give his cotton the attention which it requires. If he follows our plan thoroughly he will succeed, and in future will make his crop hopefully as he did before the boll weevil appeared.

Picking Weevils and Squares

The following is the substance of a number of letters from Mississippi farmers relative to picking weevils and squares: Mr. T. L. Rush says that the first time he caught an average of fifty weevils per acre and the second time twenty-eight. The cost of picking the weevils was about fifty cents per acre. He gathered the punctured squares seven times at a cost of about $2.50 per acre. Mr. C. S. Rowland picked the weevils and squares on thirty-five acres of cotton at a cost of $43.60. Mr. J. W. Shelton picked an average of sixty-five weevils per acre off his little cotton for four weeks at a cost of 25 cents per hundred. Mr. J. M. Crawford found 268 weevils the first time; two hundred and fifty the second time, one hundred and ninety-seven the third time and one hundred and fifty the fourth time. He gathered one bushel of squares the first time and three bushels a second time. The cost was about $20.00 on the ten acres. Mr. A. W. Harrell picked over two acres of cotton three times and got one hundred and fifty weevils and seven hundred squares. It cost him about $2.00 per acre.

Profitable Farming in South

G. H. Alford, one of the agents of the government representing the agricultural department, talked to business men and planters at the Vicksburg Cotton Exchange last week and said some good things, among them the following:

"The planters who keep their laborers and force them to grow plenty of corn, rice, potatoes, molasses, hogs and poultry for home use and to cultivate say six or seven acres of cotton, according to government instructions, will grow more prosperous every year. They will not grow as much cotton, but it will not be necessary for them to send two-thirds of the money obtained for cotton to other sections of the country to pay for farm products. Boll weevil or no weevil, prosperity will be the rule in Warren county when all of her people live on the products of the farms and grow cotton as a surplus crop. I meet planters every day who are anxious to sell their plantations. They tell me they are in debt and will never be able to raise the mortgage. They say that the boll weevil is here to destroy cotton--their money crop. They are mistaken on two counts. Profitable crops of cotton can be grown in spite of the boll weevil and cotton is not now a surplus money crop. They will grow profitable crops of cotton as a surplus crop in a year or so. They will then all live at home and grow say two-thirds as much cotton. The cotton money will then raise the mortgages instead of paying for corn, bacon, lard, mules, hay, etc. The boll weevil means diversified farming and stock raising. This means fertile soil and good farming. Fertile soil and good farming means high priced land. The boll weevil will probably keep the price of land down for two or three years, but diversified agriculture and the raising of good hogs, cattle, mules, horses and other stock will force the price up and up until it will sell for four or five times its present market value. Let every planter hold a tight grip on his land. There is no excuse for the blues. The northern farmers are getting rich. They cannot grow cotton. They cannot grow sugar cane, rice and many other crops that can be grown in Warren. Any crop will grow here that the northerners can grow. Diversified farming and stock raising and the growing of cotton as a surplus crop will put Warren county on the high road to genuine prosperity.

A Very Instructive Letter

Letter from C. R. Byrnes, Natchez, Miss., to G. H. Alford: "We are just closing our second year of serious disaster from this little pest. We show a decided improvement in 1910 over the year of 1909. Our acreage is about one-half of what it was last year and we will make about the same crop as last year. In my individual case, I made last year seventeen bales on 150 acres; this year I will make the same crop on eighty acres. You are aware that I do not live on my own farm and have only negro tenants. I have directed the management by not exceeding two visits to the farm each week during the working season and have followed the government's directions as well as I could, situated as I am. If I had lived on my farm far better results could have been obtained. I have now more corn than I will require for next year's crop and a good start of hogs and cattle. My farm has been more than self-sustaining this year and I believe I will have a splendid return next year, as I have so little to buy.

My success is due to the aid of Government instructions. To illustrate: One of my negro tenants, when I told him in the month of May that he must send his entire family into his cotton patch and pick every punctured square from the cotton stalks and burn them and also kill the weevils to be found, objected; said he did not believe in it. I replied that the instructions were not original with me, that they were from the United States Government, after a fifteen years' study of the boll weevil, and if he thought he knew more about it than the Government I would try to place him in the employ of the Government and get one of their men to come and work his crop under his, the tenant's, direction. This remark had the desired effect. He got the weevils and will make three bales of cotton on eight acres, while he made only one and one-half bales on sixteen acres last year.

Being a member of our Board of Supervisors, I insisted that our President, manager of the convict farm, plant five acres in cotton and work it under Government's instructions. He was opposed to planting any cotton. I insisted on it, stating that I was not after the money it would bring, but wanted it as an experiment and aid to our farmers, knowing that the labor was there under absolute control, and that there would be no reason why it could not be properly farmed. The five acres were planted and properly worked--two heavy bales have been ginned and another light bale will be picked. Now this was on thin upland, fertilized and worked as you would have directed. Splendid results, is it not?

You are aware that this year and last year gave us too much rain in our section to successfully combat the weevil, but we have doubled the yield under similar conditions for each year and this increase is certainly due to the good work done by the Government in our behalf. Many more farmers will next year follow more closely your instructions and if we can get a normal season as to rainfall, the cotton crop will, in my opinion, show much more decidedly the value of the Government's work.

No doubt but this pest will spread until it covers the entire cotton belt of the south. I can see work for you all the way to the Atlantic Seaboard--work in front of you and work behind you. Have you ever thought what a barren waste there might have been in the wake of this little giant were it not for the valuable assistance rendered by our Government? As it is we cover up his tracks almost as fast as they are made. Stand by us until we are able to stand alone. Then you and all connected with you in this good work will forever have the heart-felt thanks of all the farmers here."

Boll Weevil Literature

U. S. Senate Document 305, and Farmers' Bulletins 51, 74, 209, 211, 314, 344, 512. Published by U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.

Knapp's Method of Growing Cotton by H. E. Savely, and W. B. Mercier. Published by Doubleday, Page and Company, Garden City, N. Y.

Southern Field Crops by J. F. Duggar. Published by the Macmillan Co., New York.

Numerous publications may be obtained from the Louisiana Crop Pest Commission, Baton Rouge, La.; the Texas A. M. College, College Station; the Mississippi A. M. College, Agricultural College, Miss., and the Alabama A. M. College, Auburn, Ala.

I H C Booklets

These booklets will be sent to any address upon receipt of the amounts named below. Quantity lots are sent transportation charges collect.

NAME Single Copies Quantities Each Each The Story of Bread $0 03 $0 02 The Creeds of Great Business Men 05 03 Getting a Start with Alfalfa in the Corn Belt 02 01 Lecture Notes for Alfalfa Charts 04 03 Studies in Alfalfa 04 03 Alfalfa Sermon 02 01 Sweet Clover 04 03 Seed Corn 03 02 Alfalfa in the Cotton Belt 02 01 For Better Corn in the Cotton Belt 02 01 Diversified Farming in the Cotton Belt 04 02 The Boll Weevil 04 03 The Cattle Tick 02 01 For Better Crops in the South 04 03 I H C Demonstration Farms in the South 02 01 For More and Better Corn in the Northwest 02 01 Poultry Book 02 01 The Golden Stream 05 02 The Disk Harrow 04 02 For Better Crops 06 03 Engine Operator's Guide 03 02 The Story of Twine 03 02 Binder Twine Industry 20 15 Harvest Scenes of the World 50 35

"The Rag Doll" for Testing Seed Corn-- Cloth, each 10c; per dozen, 75c. Paper, per dozen, 5c. Plans and Specifications for Farm Buildings, per plan, 5c.

Besides the booklets named above, from time to time there will be issued other interesting agricultural booklets pertinent to crops in all parts of the United States. Future issues will treat such subjects as cowpeas, soy beans, peanuts, velvet beans, rice, sugar, cane, silos, feeds and feeding, weeds, insects, etc.

Agricultural Extension Department Harvester Building Chicago, Ill.

Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics are indicated by italics.

Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=.