INSECTS INJURIOUS TO COTTON 271 



By hastening the maturity of the crop, injury by the weevils 

 may be avoided by making the crop before they have become 

 most abundant. Everything possible should therefore be done 

 toward hastening maturity, and this will be of importance in rela- 

 tion to the early destruction of the stalks in the fall. Land should 

 be plowed in the winter and a good seed bed prepared. Cotton 

 should be planted as early as possible with safety. A liberal use 

 of commercial fertilizers will hasten the growth of the crop even on 

 fairly fertile soils, and on poor soils their use will return a hand- 

 some profit. Early varieties of cotton should be planted, among 

 the most satisfactory being, Rowden, Triumph, Cleveland Big 

 Boll, Cook's Improved, King, Hawkins' Early Prolific, and Sim- 

 kins. Seed should be secured from the originators of the varie- 

 ties as far as possible. Chop out the plants as soon as possible. 

 Frequent light cultivation will be found of the greatest importance 

 in hastening the crop. Deep cultivation and cultivating close to 

 the plants should be avoided as causing the squares to shed, and 

 the old practice of " laying by " by running a broad sweep down 

 the middles should be avoided. The lightest possible cultivation 

 to keep the surface soil stirred is the best. All of these methods 

 which aid in hastening the maturity of the crop are commonly 

 called " cultural methods " of preventing loss from the weevil. 

 They are not directed against the weevil itself, but are merely the 

 best agricultural methods for securing an early crop, and on light 

 upland soils attention to these methods will alone be sufficient to 

 secure a good crop. 



It has already been shown that the immature stages in squares 

 falling on the hot soil will be killed by the heat. To aid in this 

 the rows should be planted fairly wide apart, and varieties pro- 

 ducing a minimum of shade are preferable, as are those which 

 readily shed their squares when injured. As most of the squares 

 drop beneath the plants where they are shaded, any means of 

 scraping them into the centres of the rows will aid in their 

 destruction. For this purpose a chain cultivator as described by 

 Hunter (I.e.) (Fig. 198) has proven very efficient for this purpose. 

 The chains may be attached to ordinary cultivators by special 



