THE BOLD-WEEVIL 19 



last working. The corn-land was again planted in 

 cover-crops in the fall to be plowed under again in 

 the spring to add more vegetable matter. Where 

 the cover-crops were cut for hay the land was 

 planted in cowpeas, and in this way the soils that 

 had been idle a large part of the year were made to 

 work every month of the year. 



The boll-weevils . were mad now. They had a 

 spite against the entomologists and the demonstra- 

 tors. u The way those fellows are going at it is 

 surely hard on us/' they said; " farmers used to 

 plant nothing but cotton, and we had no trouble to 

 find plenty of food everywhere, but now many of 

 the same fields are planted in corn and other crops 

 which we cannot eat. Shucks, what decent bug 

 would eat corn, that old tough stuff ; and those 

 cowpeas that we tried to eat the other day, why, 

 it made our stomachs sick ; there is no taste to them, 

 oh, hum/' they sighed. 



The weevils were now forced to scatter to find 

 food, and when winter came they found that the 

 fields had been handled differently from the old 

 custom. Two weevils were talking one day. 



"How are you getting along?" one asked. 



"I am getting along all right if I could only find 

 a place to stay over winter. It beats all. I never 

 heard of my parents having trouble this way ; they 

 always found plenty of old stubble, rubbish, grass, 



