Part 3

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=.