116 AGRICULTURE 



ing on the plant. In a little more than a week the grub 

 passes into the pupa stage, which lasts from three to five 

 days, when the second generation of adult, the beetle, is 

 developed. It requires from two to three weeks for the 

 weevil to develop from egg to adult, hence a number of 

 generations are produced in a season. The offspring of a 

 single pair in a season may exceed 12,000,000 individuals. 



Fighting the boll weevil. Since the weevil life is 

 spent and damage done chiefly in the square or boll, meth- 

 ods of poisoning and picking have not proved very satis- 

 factory. The most important step in the destruction of 

 the weevil is to kill as large a proportion of them by ex- 

 posure during the winter months as possible. In order to 

 do this the fields should be cleaned of all of the stalks and 

 rubbish and the seed bed prepared in the early fall. Cot- 

 ton stalks should be thoroughly uprooted and if possible 

 plowed under just as soon as the crop is picked. Then 

 the ground should be well dragged and packed close so as 

 to shut all crevices through which the beetle might come 

 to the surface. Rubbish left upon the ground during the 

 winter months will be sure to furnish a safe hiding-place 

 and protection for the weevil, hence should be burned. 



The next most important step is the planting of an early 

 variety in order to get the crop well out of the way of the 

 larger broods of weevils. Through a system of seed se- 

 lection it is possible to develop a plant that is very strongly 

 resistant to the attacks of the boll weevil. 



Since the weevils live mainly upon the cotton boll and 

 the cotton plant, it is easy to understand why it is impor- 

 tant to rotate the crop. Cotton should not be grown on 

 the same piece of ground in boa weevil territory a second 

 year. This plan, if followed out, is also bound to bring- 

 about the diversification of farming so greatly needed in 

 the South. The weevils can not possibly live in the soil for 



