FACING THE BOLL WEEVIL PROBLEM 



IN ALABAMA 



INTRODUCTION. 



That within three years the Mexican cotton boll weevil 

 will have entered Alabama is as certain as it is that cotton 

 will continue to be produced in this and adjoining states 

 before that time. The certainty that the cotton planters of 

 Alabama will soon have to contend with an enemy more 

 difficult to fight and more destructive to the crop than any- 

 thing Avhich they have ever been forced to face should be a 

 matter of deep and immediate interest to every citizen of 

 the state regardless of his occupation. If we shall meet 

 this grave problem in a manner to result in a minimum of 

 loss to all branches of commercial and professional as well 

 as of agricultural life, it is'essential that we improve to th'^ 

 utmost the few years which may intervene in direct anL 

 united preparation for the great changes in agricultural 

 practice and in economic conditions generally which the 

 presence of this pest has invariably caused wherever it has 

 gone. We may well be willing to profit by the experience 

 for which our sister States of Texas, Louisiana and Mississ- 

 ippi, particularly have paid so large a price. We should by 

 all means begin immediately to put into active operation 

 some of the fundamental improvements in agricultural 

 practice which have been worked out during the past few 

 years as a direct result of the fight against the weevil. If 

 these practices are advisable and profitable anywhere with 

 the boll weevil present they may be made even more so here 

 and now before the weevil arrives. The great opportunity for 

 gaining experience and determining the immediate applica- 

 bility of any of these practices to our local conditions is 

 evidently the period before the weevil comes and while we 

 do not have to suffer the losses which it is very certain to 

 inflict wherever it exists. 



It mry be pardonnl)le in this case to mention a few per- 



