in any direction nearer than 15 miles. Through an agent of the Bureau, 

 Mr. J. I). Mitchell, to whom great credit is due for the direct manage- 

 ment of the matter, arrangements were made by contract with the 

 farmers concerned, under which all the cotton plants were uprooted and 

 burned during the first ten days in October. Provision was also made 

 to prevent the growing of volunteer or sprout cotton. In this way an 

 opportunity was obtained for an ideal experiment to show what can 

 be accomplished by the procedure that is now recommended by the 

 Department. About 15 miles from the locality in which the experi- 

 ment was performed a considerable quantity (295 acres) of cotton was 

 grown. In this region the stalks were not destroyed in the fall, and 

 observations made here have been used as a check upon the experi- 

 mental area. The class of farmers is about the same in the two local- 

 ities. The experiment was performed at Olivia, in Calhoun County, 

 Tex., and the cotton utilized as a check was located at Six Mile, a set- 

 tlement across Lavaca Bay, in the same count3\ 



Mr. Mitchell visited the Olivia and Six Mile localities early in May, 

 1907. At that time, in the former area, extensive search revealed but a 

 single weevil. In the Six Mile locality, however, the weevils were so 

 numerous that practically all the squares had become infested. Other 

 examinations were made, all of which showed the same advantage in 

 regard to freedom from the weevil of the area in which the stalks were 

 destroyed. On August 20 Mr. Mitchell found an average of over 10 

 bolls per plant at Olivia and only 3 bolls per plant in the check area. 



The conspicuous results of the experiment, however, are revealed by 

 the increased yield shown after the cotton was picked. The average in 

 all fields at Olivia was 0.41 bale as against 0.15 at Six Mile. This 

 increase of slightly over a quarter of a bale per acre (to be exact, 0.26 

 bale) was due to the destruction of the stalks. In order to determine 

 the exact financial advantage to the farmers at the Olivia locality, a 

 calculation has been made on the basis of the separate sale of lint and 

 seed. At Olivia the crop following the destruction of the plants aver- 

 aged 615 pounds of seed cotton per acre, that is, 205 pounds of lint 

 and 410 pounds of seed. At the Six Mile settlement the average yield 

 of seed cotton per acre was 225 pounds, that is, 75 pounds of lint and 

 150 pounds of seed. It is evident that the work done in the destruc- 

 tion of the plants at Olivia resulted in the gain of 130 pounds of lint 

 and 260 pounds of cotton seed per acre. On the basis of a value of 10 

 cents per pound for the lint and of $12 per ton for the seed, the increase 

 amounted to $14.56 per acre. This is about 29 times the cost of uproot- 

 ing and burning the plants the preceding fall, as shown b\' the actual 

 amount the Department paid for the work. 



The full importance of the results just mentioned can not be realized, 

 until it is understood that the soil at Olivia is much less fertile than 

 that at Six Mile. Mr. Mitchell, who is thoroughly familiar with the 

 productiveness of lands in that part of the State, estimated that the Six 

 Mile land is at least a third more fertile than that at Olivia. This esti- 

 mate was more than borne out by the amount of seed produced at 

 the two places during the season of 1907. At Six Mile the average 

 height of the plants, determined by measuring, was 4 feet, while at 

 Olivia the average was 2.2 feet. The estimate recorded of the advan- 

 tage resulting from the work at Olivia is made without reference to this 

 difference in fertility. 



