Part 1

Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

THE BOLL WEEVIL

How to prosper in Boll Weevil Territory

"A one crop system will impoverish any country, and in turn it will impoverish the people that are on its farms. It is only through diversification of crops and the using of our energies every day of the year, as well as our hands, that we can make a great rich country and a great, strong, vigorous people."--Prof. P. G. Holden.

HOW TO PROSPER IN BOLL WEEVIL TERRITORY

By G. H. ALFORD

PUBLISHED AND COPYRIGHTED BY THE AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION DEPARTMENT INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER COMPANY OF NEW JERSEY

PROF. P. G. HOLDEN, Director CHICAGO, USA

Introductory

This book was prepared to furnish information on farming in the boll weevil territory. Special attention has been given to the production of cotton in infested districts and to showing how to adopt a system of farming which has been found profitable by many farmers in boll weevil territories. It was written by a man who has had practical experience all his life in growing cotton in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. He later devoted a number of years to the special study of the boll weevil in the cotton fields of these states as special agent for the Farmers' Co-operative Demonstration Work. In addition to this, he is acquainted with the financial and economic conditions throughout the cotton belt.

Dedicated to all Cotton Growers

How to Prosper in Boll Weevil Territory

The System of Farming Necessary to Obtain Best Results Under Average Conditions in Boll Weevil Territory

In order to obtain profitable returns from farming in boll weevil territory, we must--First, grow an early crop of cotton; second, use every means possible to destroy the weevil and reduce their number to a minimum; third, follow a system of diversified farming.

=Grow an Early Variety of Cotton:= To secure maximum cotton crops in spite of the boll weevil pest, the cotton grower must use every effort to bring the crop to maturity just as early in the season as possible. An early crop means profit--a late crop goes to the weevil, not to the farmer. If we are to succeed in growing cotton under boll weevil conditions we must--

1. Reduce the cotton acreage so that the most effective cultural methods may be closely followed. It is often advisable to reduce the acreage 50 per cent.

2. Plant only warm, fertile, well-drained land.

3. Thoroughly prepare the seed bed before planting. Young cotton plants do not grow well in cloddy ground.

4. Make heavy applications of commercial fertilizer where the soil responds to such treatment, for it will hasten maturity and increase the yield.

5. Plant early, rapid-fruiting, prolific cotton seed.

6. Plant the seed as early as the season will permit, in rows just about as wide apart as the cotton usually grows tall in the average season.

7. Commence to cultivate the young cotton just as soon as possible, and do not permit a crust to form or the field to become grassy.

=Reduce the Cotton Acreage:= In many sections of the country, intensive farming--smaller farms and more thorough cultivation--is being profitably practiced. In boll weevil territory, we would likewise advocate "intensive" cotton growing--smaller acreage to cotton with more thorough cultivation--as a good step toward securing early and profitable cotton crops. For instance, many farmers in the boll weevil territory are now producing as much cotton on five acres by following proper methods as they formerly produced on ten acres, thus leaving half of their land to produce some other crop.

=Plant on Fertile Soil:= This is one of the necessities in order to produce an early cotton crop. The land must be well-drained so that it will warm up early in the spring and retain the heat. It must contain plenty of humus or vegetable matter to prevent packing. Plenty of vegetable matter also increases the water-holding capacity of the soil, thus reducing the loss due to the droughts that may occur in summer. Where the soil has not enough humus and therefore will not hold a sufficient amount of water, the cotton crop will stop growing and putting on squares during a long drought, and will shed the squares and many of the small bolls already on the stalks.

The soil may be kept in the proper condition of fertility for cotton by practicing a suitable rotation of crops, including legumes, and by turning under the corn stalks, the oat and pea stubble, and the grass.

=Thoroughly Prepare the Soil:= The soil should be plowed deep for the following reasons: First, to increase the water-holding capacity; second, to let the water escape from the surface without running over the ground and washing it off; third, to permit the air to circulate freely for a considerable depth in the soil; fourth, to secure crops against droughts by enabling the cotton roots to go down to moisture; fifth, to increase the area from which plant roots may obtain food. It is advisable to flat break the land in the fall and winter and then bed it some time before the planting season. The bed should be disked or harrowed just before planting the cotton seed, but it is seldom advisable to re-bed the land just before planting. Cotton comes up quicker, grows off faster and begins bearing sooner on a well settled, firm seed bed. It is not wise to plant the cotton on freshly prepared land.

=Apply Commercial Fertilizers:= Where the soil responds to commercial fertilizer, it is advisable to make heavy applications to hasten maturity and increase the yield. It is best to use fertilizers which will stimulate the fruit rather than stalk growth. High grade, 16 per cent acid phosphate is the basis for increasing fruit and hastening maturity; cotton seed meal is usually the basis for stimulating stalk growth. A mixture of two parts of 16 per cent acid phosphate and one part of 6 per cent cotton seed meal is a good mixture for cotton on soil of average fertility.

It will usually also pay to mix about ten pounds of nitrate of soda with every bushel of seed just before it is put into the planter. The nitrate of soda has a tendency to cause the young cotton to grow vigorously and resist the bad effects of cool nights. It also usually pays to make a side application of nitrate of soda just after the cotton has been thinned the first time.

=Plant Early Varieties:= The production of an early cotton crop requires carefully selected seed of an early, rapid-fruiting, prolific variety. This seed may be purchased each year, or selected from cotton plants with low fruit limbs and short joints on the main stem and fruit limbs. With the weevil pest to combat, the value of using the earliest and most prolific seed cannot be over-estimated.

It is advisable for the average farmer to buy the best early varieties from some reputable breeder and then use every known method to increase the earliness and productiveness of the cotton. Reports of tests at the Government Experiment Stations name the earliest and most prolific varieties of cotton. It is not good business to buy varieties of seed that have not been shown to be the earliest and most prolific by actual tests in the fields through a sufficient number of years to eliminate weather conditions. Seed should not be purchased because of high-sounding names or exaggerated claims.

=Plant the Seed Early:= Seed should be planted just as early as the season will permit. This is important in the work of hastening the cotton crop to early maturity. The weevils do not multiply until the squares begin to form. They seldom become sufficiently numerous to destroy the squares as fast as they form, before the last of July. While it is important to plant as early as the season will permit, do not forget that cotton is a tropical plant and is badly effected by cold weather.

=Cultivate the Young Cotton:= Cultivation should begin before the cotton comes up. This may be done by running a steel peg tooth harrow over the field either at right angles or diagonally across the rows. This helps to let the young cotton plants through and at the same time kills millions of tiny weeds and much grass just as they are coming up. The cultivation should be repeated when the little cotton is about five days old. This early cultivation kills the grass and weeds in the sprout and forms a soil mulch all over the field, which holds the moisture in the ground, thus making the little plants grow more rapidly. Early cultivation with the harrow will reduce the necessary work with the hoe to the minimum.

If for any reason the peg tooth harrow cannot be used, the ordinary one-horse harrows should be used to stir the soil on top of the beds just before the cotton comes up. The harrow or cultivator used will kill the little grass and weeds and leave a shallow, loose layer of soil on the surface.

All later cultivation should be made with such implements as the one or two-horse cultivators, disk harrows and heel sweeps. A turning plow is out of place in a cotton field unless the soil is devoid of vegetable matter and runs together after heavy rains or unless it rains for two or three weeks and it becomes necessary to plow under the grass. If the soil packs after heavy rains, it may be advisable to use the turning plow as a necessary evil, especially, when the cotton is young. If it should be necessary to use it to loosen the soil or to clean out the crop, by all means avoid deep cultivation late in the season. Be sure to use the harrow or cultivator a few days after using the turning plow to thoroughly pulverize the stirred soil and make a dust mulch.

The essential thing in the cultivation of the cotton is to keep the ground free from grass and weeds and covered with a soil mulch. Frequent and shallow cultivation should be continued until the cotton begins to open. Most of the benefits of thorough preparation, early, rapid-fruiting seed, early planting and intensive, shallow cultivation may be lost unless the fields are given the utmost attention until the cotton begins to open. Frequent and shallow cultivation late in the season will not result in the death of many adult weevils, but it will knock many punctured squares to the hot ground and cause the cotton to remain green and continue to grow and put on squares to furnish food for the boll weevil. The boll weevil prefers squares to bolls and as long as the cotton puts on sufficient squares to furnish it with the necessary food it will not attack many bolls.

Avoid deep cultivation late in the season, especially close to the cotton. If the plows cut the roots and cause the cotton to cease to put on squares the weevil will at once attack the bolls, which would otherwise not be injured.

How to Reduce Boll Weevil

Best Methods of Reducing the Number of Weevil to a Minimum--Results of Many Experiments Conducted

Remarkable results and profitable returns have been obtained by carefully applying the following methods of destroying the boll weevil:

1. Completely strip the cotton stalks of foliage, squares, and bolls--the weevils' sole food supply--plow the cotton stalks under good and deep, or burn them at the earliest possible moment.

2. During the winter, destroy the rubbish in and about the fields, which might serve as hibernating quarters for weevils.

3. When the weevils appear on the new cotton in the spring, pick them off and destroy them.

4. Pick up all punctured squares and destroy them for at least one month after the first squares form on the cotton.

=Importance of Destroying the Food Supply:= The most important step in producing cotton in boll weevil territory is the early fall destruction of the foliage, squares, and immature punctured bolls on the cotton stalks, which constitute the weevils' only food supply. Thousands of experimenters, including the United States Bureau of Entomology, Government Agents in Farm Demonstration Work, the Louisiana State Crop Pest Commission, and thousands of successful farmers substantiate this statement that the early fall destruction of the cotton stalks is the most effective method that can be employed for the reduction of the number of weevil.

An experiment conducted by the Bureau of Entomology in Calhoun County, Texas, showed that where the stalks on 410 acres of land were destroyed early in October, that the yield was increased $14.56 per acre. Another experiment was conducted on opposite sides of the Guadaulope River near Victoria, Texas. The stalks were burned on one farm the latter part of September and on the other they were allowed to stand until planting time. Forty acres, on the farm on which the stalks were destroyed, produced fifteen bales of cotton. Forty acres on the other farm made three and one-half bales.

Experiments conducted by the Louisiana State Crop Pest Commission are summed up in the following extracts from Circular No. 28: "Where the cotton plants were destroyed before October 15, only 3 per cent of the weevils survived the winter to infest the next year's crop. Where the stalks were destroyed from October 15 to October 27, an average of about 15 per cent of the weevils passed through the winter successfully. Where the stalks were destroyed between November 1 and November 25, an average of approximately 22 per cent of the weevil survived the winter. Postponing the fall destruction of cotton stalks until the middle of December, or later, permitted over 43 per cent of the weevils to survive the winter and attack the next crop." _Where the stalks were destroyed before October 15, only 3 per cent of the weevils passed the winter. Where the stalks remained in the field until December 15, over 43 per cent of the weevils survived the winter._ These figures certainly emphasize very strikingly the value of early fall destruction of the boll weevil's food supply.

=Methods of Destroying the Food Supply:= With the importance of early fall destruction of the cotton stalks fully realized, the cotton grower has before him the question of how best to accomplish this. There are three methods of destroying the squares, bolls, and foliage of the cotton stalks: 1. Pasturing; 2. Plowing under; 3. Burning.

Pasturing the cotton fields is a good method of destroying squares, bolls and foliage where the cotton fields are fenced and where a sufficient number of cattle can be turned into a field to eat all the squares, bolls, and foliage in a few days. However, let it be distinctly understood that the practice of turning just a few head of cattle into a fifteen or twenty acre cotton field accomplishes no particular good. Every cotton grower knows from his own observation that two or three head of cattle to an acre, even when confined entirely to the cotton field, will eat very little of the green foliage in one week, and it must be kept in mind that it is vital to destroy as quickly and as completely as possible the food supply of the mature weevils and the breeding places of the immature weevils.

Plowing cotton stalks under is an effective method of destroying the food supply of mature weevils and ending the lives of immature weevils where there are few stumps and roots, where the cotton stalks are small, and where large plows and strong teams can be had. Farmers who have attempted to plow under green cotton stalks early in the fall, laugh at the advice sometimes given to plow under the stalks at all times and under all conditions as a means of destroying the food supply of the weevil. They know from experience that such advice is often better theory than practice as the plowing under of green cotton stalks is very often a decidedly obstinate proposition. However, where large plows and strong teams are available, use them and completely bury the cotton stalks wherever it can be done.

Burning the stalks is a practical method of destroying the weevils. On many farms and plantations there are not cattle enough to strip the cotton stalks thoroughly and completely of every particle of foliage, squares and bolls in a short time by pasturing. It is also often impossible to completely bury the cotton stalks. In such cases, it is absolutely necessary to cut, dry and burn them as soon as the cotton can be picked. By burning the stalks, the food supply of the adult weevil is destroyed, and weevils in immature stages in the squares and bolls are destroyed. A large majority of the adult weevils also perish in the flames, especially when the stalks are burned after sundown, as weevils retire to the stalk piles for the night at about that time. They seldom move about at night, and if care is taken not to disturb them when applying the torch, practically all will be destroyed.

Of course, if the stalks are allowed to remain until a heavy frost has come, practically all of the mature weevils will have gone into winter hibernating quarters and the immature weevils in the squares and small bolls will have been frozen. Nothing will be gained in that case by burning the stalks and the best thing that can be done will be to cut the stalks and turn them under as deeply as possible.

=Clean Up Hibernating Quarters:= Many weevils escape from the fields but all do not fly beyond the reach of the farmer. Surprising numbers have been found hibernating in cracks and holes in the ground and under grass, weeds and other trash. In January, 1907, in one instance, the United States Bureau of Entomology found 5,870 weevils per acre of which 70 per cent were alive. Most of the many examinations that have been made have shown more than one thousand live weevils per acre in the cotton fields. Many are found along the fence rows, hedges, ditch banks and in decayed logs and dead trees. Thousands more are found hibernating in nearby cornfields and old sorghum, cane and hay fields.

Winter plowing of all cultivated fields is therefore another effective way of reducing the number of weevils, as the thousand or more weevils per acre in the cracks and holes in the ground and under the grass, weeds, trash and cornstalks can practically all be killed by deep winter breaking.

=Picking Off the Weevils:= After the hibernating weevils emerge from their winter quarters in the spring and reach the young cotton, there is little further movement until the general dispersing season in August, September and October. The fact that the weevil does not move about much except in the fall makes it possible for the individual farmer to accomplish results from his own efforts in fighting the pest. There is little danger of weevils coming in from other fields until in August, by which time the cotton crop is normally set. For this reason, there need be no fear that time will be wasted which is spent in thoroughly picking off the weevils from the young cotton plants before the squares begin to form.

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.