How to Grow Cotton in Spite of the 

 Boll Weevil 



By G. H. Alford* 



I H C Agricultural Extension Department, Atlanta, Georgia. 



Destroy the boll weevil. Force the 

 cotton plants to early maturity. 



Reduce the number of weevils by de- 

 stroying the food supply ; by burning all 

 rubbish in and about the cotton fields 

 which are serving as hibernating quar- 

 ters; by picking off the old weevils when 

 they appear on the cotton plants early 

 in the spring; by gathering the punct- 

 ured squares and destroying them for 

 the first month after the cotton season 

 opens. 

 Force the cotton plants to early maturity by selecting an 

 early maturing variety; by fertilizing properly; by carefully 

 selecting early maturing seed, and by thorough cultivation. 



Destroy Food Supply— The most important step in produc- 

 ing cotton in boll weevil territory is the early fall destruction 

 of the weevil's only'food supply, the squares, small bolls, and 

 foliage on the cotton stalks. When their food supply is destroyed 

 early in the fall, they will either starve for lack of food before 

 cold drives them into quarters or will go into winter quarters 

 "lank and lean" and very few will survive for spring depreda- 

 tions. Another very important reason for the early fall destruc- 

 tion of the squares and small bolls on the cotton stalks is that 

 the development of the late broods of young, fat, vigorous 

 weevils that survive the winter is cut off at once. There are 

 three methods of destroying the squares, small bolls and foliage 

 on the cotton stalks: Pasturing, plowing under, burning. 



Pasturing Cotton Fields is a good method of destroying the 

 squares, small bolls, and foliage— the food supply of the mature 



♦Editor's Note : Mr. Alford, who now has charge of the I H C Agricultural 

 Extension work in the South, served several years in the employment of the Gov- 

 ernment at Washington, D. C. As a legislator in Mississippi, his principal work was 

 promoting legislation in behalf of the agricultural interests of the state. He has made 

 a thorough and extended study of the cotton boll weevil and is regarded as one of the 

 best informed men on this subject in the South. He has spent considerable time in 

 the midst of the boll weevil fight in southern Mississippi, where he had charge of the 

 Government demonstration work. 



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