GOVERNMENT WORK FOR THE FARMER. 4I 



cotton crop. The Department experts almost over-ran Texas. 

 They have studied every phase of the boll weevil question 

 imaginable, from the use of this machine to the use of that, and 

 from the use of this spray or that spray, and have worked out 

 every idea for its control that could possibly be suggested by 

 the three million people that live down there. Unfortunately, 

 we have found no absolute remedy for this pest. However, 

 as the result of all this study there has grown up a policy which, 

 at least, is giving fairly good results. It was found, as a 

 matter of experiment, that the early variety of cotton, when 

 planted as early in the season as possible, and cultivated thor- 

 oughly, would give a crop before these little pests became 

 abundant enough to do damage. Therefore, the result of this 

 study was simply the discovery of this simple method for treat- 

 ment of the crop. Coupled with this use of early varieties and 

 early cultivation, it was found that by cleaning up the fields, 

 and burning up the old cotton stalks, etc., it would destroy large 

 numbers of the pest. That knowledge has been spread broad- 

 cast all over Texas and in the adjoining region afflicted with 

 it. The interest in the matter down there is simply intense. 

 During the last political campaign it was said that it was im- 

 possible to get the attention of the people fixed on the election 

 because they were so intent in discussing the boll weevil. You 

 could go into most any town in that district and find groups 

 of men who instead of talking politics were talking about the 

 boll weevil, and the new idea of overcoming the trouble by 

 better cultivation. Now as the result of the efforts of the 

 Department Texas has made a decided advance. There has 

 never been such a quick acquisition of knowledge on the part 

 of the growers of any crop, and I venture to say that the 

 farmers are better informed in regard to advanced methods than 

 in any other industry of like kind. While we have not been 

 able to absolutely control the boll weevil, we have been able 

 to show the farmers that they could produce a crop with the 

 boll weevil all around them. 



The other lines of work of the Department probably need 

 not be mentioned this morning, but just a word in regard to the 

 dissemination of knowledge. You are all probably familiar 

 with our year book, in which we bring together special papers 

 on special topics. It is a book of from eight hundred to a thous- 

 and pages, and is published in editions of five hundred thousand 



