THE BOLL WEEVIL PROBLEM. Oot 
tivated byeach hand. The production can best be kept up or increased 
by more intensive methods on smaller areas. If this principle be put 
in operation on plantations in so far as it is practicable, the objection 
to fall destruction on account of the scarcity of labor will tend to 
disappear. Another objection raised is that the process tends to 
impoverish the soil. As a matter of fact, the burning of the stalks 
removes only a small amount of the fertilizing elements, and, more- 
over, the practice now is to burn the plants a few months later. In 
most cases the humus is more important than the fertilizing elements 
themselves. The use of commercial fertilizers in one case and the 
practice of green manuring in the other will solve both of these 
difficulties. 
In regions where the loss of organic matter from the burning of 
the stalks is important the best advice that can be given is to cut | 
the stalks by means of the usual machine for that purpose and bury 
them deeply as soon thereafter as possible. This will cause the de- 
struction of many of the immature stages in the squares and bolls. 
The practice will be more effective if the land is harrowed or dragged 
immediately after the stalks are plowed under. Where none of the 
practices recommended can be followed it only remains for the 
planter to uproot the plants and leave them lying in the field. This 
will cut off the development of squares and thereby deprive the 
weevils of opportunities for breeding, while the plants remain in the 
field so that picking can be continued as long as may be necessary. 
METHODS OF DESTROYING WEEVILS IN THE FALL. 
The reader is referred to Circular 95 of the Bureau of Entomology 
for particulars regarding methods of destroying the weevils in the 
fall. In this connection it will be stated that the proper method, in 
general, is to uproot the plants by means of plows, and to burn them 
as soon as possible. Other methods are applicable to different condi- 
tions. As soon as the plants are uprooted they should be placed in 
piles or windrows, which will utilize the leaves in the burning. The 
difficulty in one method of removing the plants—that of cutting them 
off near the surface of the ground with a stalk cutter or ax—is that 
during mild seasons many sprouts soon make their appearance to fur- 
nish food for weevils that would otherwise starve during the fall or 
winter. If the ordinary stalk cutter be followed immediately by 
plows, some of the desired results will be obtained. The great objec- 
tion is that the innumerable weevils in the bolls and squares will be 
allowed to develop. Nothing but uprooting and burning will come 
near meeting the exigencies caused by the weevil. 
Plowing under infested squares.—It has been found that the weevil 
has little ability to emerge through wet soil. This fact can not be 
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