50 BULLETIN 564, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



of the women in the labor complex of ordinary operations. Under 

 such conditions (and these are normal conditions in the Delta) the 

 only labor left available for weevil and square picking operations 

 without taking hands from some other operations is that of the chil- 

 dren who are too small to hoe. 



In this connection it is necessary to consider the type of labor 

 required for the control operation. It would seem that the children 

 and such women as might happen to be available should be able to 

 reduce the weevil infestation somewhat by picking, but this is not 

 the case. As a general rule negro children working alone will accom- 

 plish nothing. Their only incentive for effective work lies in the 

 continued presence of older people who will force them to work prop- 

 erly and continuously. This would of course involve the presence of 

 at least a few women with each group of children, and when the 

 family is the unit the mother would be forced to neglect the hoeing 

 and work with the children. Even this would be practicable under 

 some conditions if it were not for the attitude of the women. It is 

 generally recognized that negro women are very unsatisfactory 

 workers at many plantation operations without the presence of men 

 to keep them at work. This is particularly true of the weevil-picking 

 operation, as this work is very distasteful to them and they wish to 

 slight it. Of course this is due to the fact that the incentive for per- 

 forming arduous and distasteful labor is not as great with the women 

 as with the men because, generally speaking, the women are not as 

 much concerned as the men in securing a successful crop. As a 

 result it is generally found that to secure a picking which in any way 

 approaches thoroughness it is necessary to have a certain number of 

 men with each force of laborers. At any rate, regardless of the 

 necessity of the presence of men, a small amount of child labor is in 

 reality the only surplus labor available, and this is certainly far from 

 sufficient to produce any effect upon the weevil infestation. Any 

 addition to this labor only depletes the ranks of those employed in 

 the ordinary plantation operations, and must result in some neglect. 



The discovery of the injurious effect of the use of the bag-and-hoop 

 on the plant is of great importance. Owing to the seriousness of the 

 labor problem concerned in these operations, the first studies of the 

 use of the bag-and-hoop looked very encouraging, as it was certainly 

 a great advance over hand picking in both speed and efficiency of 

 operation. However, the studies of the past season have shown 

 definitely that the use of this semimechanical picker can not be 

 recommended. 



The studies on the infested forms collected by the bag-and-hoop 

 are considerably reduced in practical importance by the discovery 

 of the injurious effect of this collector on the plants. However, the 

 general tendency of these studies is to emphasize this injurious effect, 



