COTTON" OR WEEVILS 15 



chines, this means at night. When the airplane is used, the dusting 

 is usually done as much as possible during the very early morning- 

 hours. 



Always remember that calcium arsenate is a poison and must 

 be handled very carefully. Wear gloves whenever you use the 

 powder and never get any of it in your mouth. 



About 5 pounds of the poison should be dusted on each acre of the 

 cotton at any one time. The plants should have their second dusting 

 at the end of four days unless it rains, and then the plants should be 

 redusted just as soon as the rain stops. Usually about three dustings 

 will be enough to bring the weevils under control. If the weevils 

 should get numerous enough later in the season to injure the cotton, 

 you can dust once or twice more. A heavy rainfall within 24 hours 

 after dusting will wash the poison oif the plants ; in such a case the 

 field should be dusted again immediately. 



OTHER WAYS OF DESTROYING WEEVILS AND HELPING THE 

 COTTON PLANTS TO GRQW A GOOD CROP 



We should not depend upon the poison alone, however, to protect 

 our cotton crop from the boll weevil. Sometimes it is not necessary 

 to go to the expense of poisoning the weevils. Other means of control 

 may be enough to protect the crop. 



One of the most important control methods we can use is the de- 

 struction of the cotton plants in the early fall. You know that in the 

 fall there are likely to be great numbers of baby boll weevils in the 

 squares and bolls which are still on the plants at this time. If these 

 are left in the fields the baby weevils will grow into adults and then 

 go into their winter sleep. Those that live through the winter will 

 attack the young cotton plants next spring. To prevent this, we 

 should burn or completely plow under all the cotton plants standing 

 after the crop is gathered. If we do this we shall destroy all the 

 weevil grubs and pupae before they are able to grow any more. In 

 order to get the best results we should do this before the first killing 

 frost. 



As the weevils use any kind of grass or weeds for shelter, it would 

 be a good thing to clean up along fence rows, all the ditches on the 

 farm, and around the edges of our cotton fields. If we do this 

 thoroughly, the weevils will have no place to spend the winter and 

 will then be killed by the cold. 



If we can not clean up before frost time, it is often a good thing 

 to pasture our fields with livestock, letting the animals eat as much 

 of the plants as they will. This is perfectly safe for stock, even if 

 poison has been used earlier in the season. Not enough poison will 

 stay on the plants to hurt the grazing animals. 



Now we come to the two most important points in raising a 

 cotton crop in those parts of the country where the boll weevils are. 

 Always select cotton seed of a kind that will grow and produce ripe 

 cotton as quickly as possible, then plant this seed as early in the 

 spring as possible after all clanger from frost is past. If we can 

 use a kind of cotton that will grow and ripen quickly and if we can 

 start it to growing early enough in the spring, you can easily see 

 that there will be a chance for the crop to ripen, or at least a part 

 of it, before the boll weevils get numerous enough to do serious 



