12 BOLL WEEVIL. 



Then stop poisoning until the weevils again hecome alundant If 

 the iveevils become aivndant early enough to injure your young bolls, 

 make one or two more applicatiotis late in the season. 



If you have a heavy rain within %h hours after dusting, repeat this 

 application immediately. 



Do not expect to eradicate the weevils. Poisoning merely controls 

 them sufficiently to permit a full crop of cotton, and you can ahoays 

 find tveevils in the successfully poisoned field. 



Keep your cotton acreage tow and db everything possible to in- 

 crease your yield per acre, as it costs just as much to poison one- 

 quarter bale per acre cotton as bale per acre cotton. 



Always leave an occasional portioti of a cut unpoisoned for com- 

 parison with the adjoining foisoned tract._ This will show how much 

 you have increased your yield by poisoning. 



If you are considering poisoning, write the Delta Laboratory, at 

 Tallulah, La., for more detailed information; also ask the advice of 

 your county agent. 



Do it right or not at all. 



The chief artificial means of controlling the boll weevil are found 

 in cultural methods. The weevils can not be exterminated. The 

 only hope lies in reducing their number to the point where injury 

 to the cotton crop will be a minimum. 



Effects of the Boll Weevil. 



effect on cotton production. 



Of the disastrous effect of the boll weevil on cotton production 

 there can be no question. 



Many have cited the fact that Texas now produces more cotton 

 than ever before to prove that the boll weevil is not really the menace 

 that some believe it to be. However, the explanation in the case of 

 Texas is found in the dry, hot climate ; the large area of prairie land 

 affording little winter shelter to the weevil; the severe winters in 

 the western and northwestern portions of the State; and the gradu- 

 ally increasing acreage, most of which has been in that part of the 

 State least favorable to the multiplication of the boll weevil. In 

 1900 Texas was planting 7,041,000 acres and producing 3.438,386 

 bales of cotton. In 1914 the average had increased to 11,921,000 

 acres and the crop to 4,592,112 bales. An analysis of the Texas 

 situation by counties shows that the boll weevil seriously reduced 

 the crop in those counties which were in cotton before the weevil 

 appeared. 



In Louisiana where the acreage remained practically the same dur- 

 ing the same 14-y6ar period the cotton production fell from 0.55 bale 

 per acre to 0.34 bale per acre, and from a total of 705,767 bales to 

 449,458 bales. In East Feliciana Parish, a section which in elevation 

 and summer rainfall corresponds cxactlv to central South Carolina, 

 the production in 1902 was 29,549 bales ;" in 1915, 2,836 bales. In the 

 adjoining parish of East Baton Rouge the production in 1908 was 

 27,864 bales and in 1915 was 1,844 bales. In Madison Parish the pro- 

 duction in 1902 was 21,844 bales; in 1915, 3,892 bales. 



These figures prove more eloquently than can any argument the 

 net results of the boll-weevil in\asion on cotton production. 



