22 FARM SPIES 



out your soils," and he walked on, because he was a 

 good farmer who did not have time to stand around 

 the street, arguing. 



Since the weevils came to this country many in- 

 sects and birds have become their enemies and are 

 destroying them. Even the cotton caterpillar, that 

 athlete among insects, has been of help in fighting 

 them, by eating the leaves late in the season when 

 no more squares may be expected to mature ; this 

 kills weevils by starving them or by forcing them 

 into winter quarters before they are ready. 



Mr. Hentsel says: " The boll-weevil is a bad one, 

 and I wish he had never come, but he is here, and 

 we might as well forget when he came. He has 

 done us good. Since he came to the South we have 

 found out that we are better farmers than we thought 

 we were. When that long-nosed rogue came he 

 thought he would just walk over us and starve us, 

 but I tell you, gentlemen, Americans are hard to 

 beat." 



