18 BULLETIN 875, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



events on his place and has a much smaller area to consider. Under 

 such conditions he can watch' his cotton very thoroughly for weevil out- 

 breaks and is usually fully informed on weevil distribution and abund- 

 ance throughout his fields. Furthermore, under such conditions poi- 

 soning is a comparatively minor operation, and by the use of hand 

 guns or small-capacity traction dusting machinery it is possible for 

 him to fit the weevil-poisoning work into his regular operations and 

 handle it with little or no interference. Of course, as a rule, his 

 fields are smaller than on a large plantation and thus it is usually 

 necessary for him to poison his entire crop. 



In a number of instances several neighbors have planned to enter 

 into some agreement and purchase a traction-power machine coopera- 

 tively with the idea of treating their several crops with the same ma- 

 chine. Theoretically this arrangement seems a very good one, but 

 there is considerable room for doubt concerning its practical work- 

 ing. As has been pointed out, weevil poisoning is generally an 

 emergency proposition and the work must be done at the right time 

 or the entire operation may be imperiled. Consequently, the situa- 

 tion which would develop in case the weather should interfere with 

 a set schedule for machine operation on several places can easily be 

 imagined. Crops belonging to the different men would require 

 treatment at the same time and it would simply be contrary to human 

 nature if friction did not develop under such conditions. 



DUSTING MACHINERY TO USE. 



The selection of proper dusting machinery is undoubtedly equally 

 as important as securing the correct poison. At the outset of the 

 poisoning work an attempt was made to utilize or adapt existing 

 types of dusting machines such as have been used for truck crops 

 or orchard dusting, but it was soon found that cotton dusting 

 required highly specialized machinery. All dusting operations 

 which had been conducted previously had been in conjunction 

 with more or less intensively handled crops where the labor supply 

 per acre was generally rather plentiful and where the labor was of a- 

 fairly intelligent type. In the culture of cotton, however, dusting is 

 placed on an extensive basis where it becomes a large field operation 

 and the machinery must be made as efficient, fool-proof, and simple 

 as possible. 



The success of cotton dusting is so dependent on thorough distribu- 

 tion of the poison that any attempt to utilize a means of application 

 which, does not give this thorough distribution is certain to result in 

 absolute failure. Many farmers have been accustomed to use the 

 " bag-and-pole " method of poisoning for leaf worm control. Such 

 a method of application is suited to leafworm control where large 



