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reputable planters. This contract binds the planter to follow the directions 
of the Bureau in all respects, from the preparation of the soil through to the 
marketing of the crop. In consideration of this agreement on the part of the 
planter, the Department guarantees him a certain yield per acre. ‘The amount 
of this guaranty is determined as far as possible upon the competitive bid 
basis, although the personal attitude of the planter is considered to be fully 
as important as the lowness of the proposal. This system has been found to 
work in a very satisfactory manner. On seven of the fifteen farms in operation 
curing the past season the crop produced has been more than the amount 
guaranteed. The work on about 700 acres, therefore, cost the Department 
nothing. On some of the remaining farms, owing to intentional late planting, 
or to other conditions, the yield has been much below the amount guaranteed. 
In such cases the contract binds the Department to pay the planter for the 
difference between the amount actually produced and the amount guaranteed 
at the average price received for what crop the land did produce. ~ 
A novel method fer securing the subjugation of an insect was 
adopted by the State of Texas. The legislature of that State voted 
a reward of $50,000 to the person or persons who should devise a 
practicable, cheap, and effective plan for the control of the boll weevil. 
A commission of farmers was appointed to pass upon claimants for 
the reward and to put the various plans to a practical test. 
The chairman of this commission, Hon. Jefferson Johnson, of Aus- 
tin, Tex., has kindly furnished a brief statement, which may be of 
interest, concerning the varieties of remedies proposed. 
This work has involved an outlay of considerable time. ‘There were more 
than 300 claimants for the reward. Not all of these, however, complied with 
the requirements of the law. Three thousand letters have beem received from 
people who believed that they knew something that would be of value to the 
commission. . 
It would be hard to determine how many principles were depended upon to 
support these various claims. The majority of them trusted to cultural methods. 
A large number presented some form of poisoning. ‘There was quite a number 
of theories for fumigation either to kill the weevil or drive it from the field. 
Several claims depended upon placing in the soil some ingredients or poison 
that would be taken up by the plant and thus make the plant distasteful or 
poisonous. Others along the same line proposed methods to make the plant 
immune. There were several claimants who depended upon inoculation of the 
weevil with some contagious disease, and in this manner so destroying the 
powers of propagation as to rid the country cf the pest in this way. Several 
claimants insisted that Providence had sent the insect, and that Providence 
aione could remove it, and these trusted in supplication. Not a few advanced 
the theory that noxious plants could be grown with the cotton, thus either 
destroying the weevil or keeping it from the field. One claimant submitted a 
proposition to plant poppies, thus destroying the weevil by the opium that the 
insect would get from this plant. 
Many ingenious machines were made for catching weevils and for picking up 
by mechanical process the squares from the ground. Other machines were 
invented and tried for burning the squares on the ground, and others for passing 
the squares between rollers. 
These claimants came from every quarter of the globe, and letters were 
addressed to the commission in the language of almost all of the civilized world. 
