CONTROL OF BOLL WEEVIL IN MISSISSIPPI DELTA. 



41 



easy to distinguish the last picked row at a glance, as this row was a 

 foot or more shorter in height than the adjoining unpicked row. 



PRODUCTION. 



The seed cotton produced in these two plats was picked on August 

 24 and October 26. The amounts secured are shown in Table 36. 



Table 36.- 



—Seed-cotton production, mechanical picker test, Talluluh, La., 1916. 





Date picked. 



Seed cotton per 

 acre. 





Check 

 plat. 



Picked 

 plat. 



Aug. 24 



Pounds. 

 216 

 190 



Pounds. 

 182 



Oct. 26 



109 









Total 



406 



291 









From this it is seen that the check yielded considerably more than 

 the picked plat each time and in the total of the two pickings there 

 was a loss of 115 pounds of seed cotton per acre in the picked plat. 

 This amounts to a loss of 28 per cent below check and shows quite 

 well the injurious effect of the picking operations with this machine. 



COMPARATIVE EFFICIENCY STUDIES. 



As a further check on the efficiency of the machine it was tested 

 in comparison with the bag-and-hoop simply on the basis of efficiency 

 in operation. 



The first test was conducted on July 13. A uniform strip of cotton 

 14 rows wide and 645 feet in length was selected. The method 

 followed was to pick two of these rows with the mechanical picker, 

 then two with the bag-and-hoop, then two with the mechanical 

 picker and so on until eight rows had been picked with the mechanical 

 picker and six with the bag-and-hoop. Records were kept of the 

 number of weevils and forms collected by each of these methods, 

 and the time required was likewise noted. This test was repeated 

 in an identical manner on the same cotton August 3. The results 

 of these two tests are shown in Table 37. 



Table 37. — Comparative efficiency tests, mechanical pickers, Tallulah, La., 1916. 





Mechanical picker (per row). 



Bag-and-hoop (per row). 



Date. 



Wee- 

 vils 

 col- 

 lected. 



Squares. 



Bolls. 



Time 

 re- 

 quired 



Wee- 

 vils 

 col- 

 lected. 



Squares. 



Bolls. 



Time 





Punc- 

 tured. 



Clean. 



Punc- 

 tured. 



Clean. 



Punc- 

 tured. 



Clean. 



Punc- 

 tured. 



Clean. 



re- 

 quired 



July 13. 



2.6 

 48.4 



9.6 



S Q 



1.0 

 14.7 



0.25 



Min. 

 2 

 3 



9.9 

 77.5 



37.0 

 280.6 



15.3 



16.0 

 25.0 



3.8 



Min. 

 20 



Aug. 3 



163.1 



20 











