Show noi 0 o gechter anevil nn WR I 1 3 41 1 1 hl Z 14 A 4 A lip MEN ep i ch j A p 6 Y V q n ty by JOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN OME day the bugs will get gel us if we dont watch out so say tile the entomologists and other scientists say tile the bug binl men n nio are quite right what they mean la Is that the locusts grasshoppers beetles borers wee YIN und ond other pests of the tweet insect world threaten to cat us out of house lionso and home and starve ux to death they hold that the insect world Is mans most dangerous enemy so dan dangerous gemus that only by eternal elgi i ilce face and unceasing warfare will the human race be able to survive in the meantime uncle sam entomologist mo Is authority for the official statement abat a billion dollar annual loss Is inflicted indicted upon our gardens fields orchards anil and forests foresta by n hundred or more imported insect pests hind you uncle sum sam says import Id 3 pests 11 offhand one would say that the earliest earl leat of these imported posts pests iras the ITes hessian fly was brought over in the revolution by tile the mercenaries hired by george ill III from icerman prince we treated the hes liana rough you remember what ceorge washington did to them at trenton and the fly they brought in their straw packing has since de enough of our wheat to pay the german war debt there has been a succession of these imported pests pesta ever since so now idaus uncle sam lias has a small army at work fighting them in tile the agricultural department tor for example he has hag the bureaus of plant industry and entomology and the insecticide avd fungicide board through them lie he watches the ports to keep new pests pesta out ho he scours tho the earth for pest restating plants and for fop insects that prey on pests that prey upon us ile he experiments with insect poisons A 23 acre farm which includes insect rests pests among its chief crops Is operated it vienna va the american people pay DAY some soine a year for lesec and fungicides with which to combat crop posts pests fungous growths tid household vermin at the vienna farm the pests ore permitted to reach their full measure of destructiveness whereupon hereupon they are subjected to treatment with commercial insecticides and elcides elc ldes to determine the effective oesie of 8 lucli preparations right now there Is a big controversy ping S tn ta over the importation of nar elssel sui bulbs bulba uncle sam says that after cr january 1 importation will be restricted why because these cheso bulbs uto are ut o frequent and abundant car of two pests bulb flies files and the european eelworm eel worm the former ets eilts lona and the latter onions clover clever W oats and potatoes botti both have al leady ady gamed gained a foothold liere here of 0 all these theae imported pests the one TO set get roost most frequently under the liml la Is tile the mexican cotton boll weevil 81 scarcely arcely a newspaper but has news of ta doings or whitt what Is being done to pr for example an item of current leir ew Is 19 bilat tin an agricultural extension vv V v N t N impell zy service survey shows the cotton fields belda of north carolina to bo be more heavily infested this year than last in some cases its is high as 50 per cent nother another A tells tella of the tha discovery of a germicide that will rid tile the south of the pest by a prisoner inthe in the atlanta federal penitentiary who had been a baltimore scientist of note A third Is that tire chemical warfare service of the united states army has haa been turned loose on the boll weevil with orders to find some poison that will put it out of business for all time probably one reason for the tha persistent throwing of the limelight on the boll weevil Is the tact fact that cotton 1 la 19 9 one ofte of our big crops some years it equals in value the corn crop the cotton belt extends from the atlantic to texas and oklahoma probably it will be extended clear to the pacific and this american belt grows 64 54 per cent of the worlds cotton our exports of cotton are about twice those of the rest of the world find and we use usa SO 30 per cent of the worlds production the boll weevil gran dds Is a gray insect about the size of a housefly both adults and grubs injure the cotton the former by feeding puncturing and laying eggs the latter by feeding on the contents of the bolls the boll weevil first entered the united states from mexico in 1892 getting a foothold in southwestern texas infestation spread slowly but surely climatic conditions made 1015 1915 a year of catastrophe in the matter of infestation no less than square miles of cotton raising territory were reported in bad shape all told the boll weevil has bos caused the loss of many million bales of cotton also it has largely reduced at times the area devoted to cotton and yet the mexican boll weevil in its own way a top lop as a crop destroyer has not proved an unmixed evil to all odthe of the cotton raising south on t th hw e contrary one alabama town la Is actually grateful to it and has shown th that at L gratitude rAtI tude by erecting in the public square a monument in its honor this town Is enterprise and the inscription option on the monument reads lit in profound appreciation of 0 THE BOLL WEEVIL and what it has haa done as aa tha herald of prosperity this monument Is IB erected by the citizens of enterprise cortee coffee county alabama bock in 1015 1915 cotton coton was king aln in coffee coffed county then came the boll weevil and cut down the yield GO per cent in 1010 the whole countryside was wrecked and ruined the wolf wax at ar the door for planters know knew nothing of diversified crops an and I 1 the boll weevil had destroyed ring king cotton writes carl W in good hard ware new york but tho the city and the business men man got together they decided something must be done and done quickly thy they saw farmers leaving the farms and the young men flocking to the cities they saw a dying enterprise so they began preaching diversification tic n for the first time in the history of that section within one year cot tea feet county bro broke kathe the worlds record in the tha yield of peanuts for or a similar area and also in the return in dollars dollari and cents for or hogs and cattle shipped the farmers raised their own hay corn born potatoes and other produce for home consumption which they bought previously sly when they raised only potton coffee county has now become EL a flour cattle and hog bog market as an well a as a peanut market alabama now s bella a i s to the middle west before it b bought 0 u only by 1918 and 1019 1919 this entire section had learned the lesson of diversification an aa a result the whole county wnm was rolling in prosperity it was not until after the coming of the bus bug that enterprise saw paved streets and sidewalks paved at a cost of many thou 1 sands of 0 dollars the hardware stores did a flourishing business and the same alls wa truo true of other stores several small emall factories came to tho the city and the post orloe oMe erose rose from fourth class to second handsome school buildings and fine churches hospitals and beautiful homes were war erected all because the farmers learned to raise something besides cotton Is it surprising then that on one of the principal streets streeta of this little city was erected in december of 1919 a monumental fountain to the memory of the mexican boll weevil vill 1 this monument stands today as an the only monument ever erected to the memory of a pest on the american continent the much dreaded boll bovil proved toba to be a blessing in disguise when it was discover discovered pd that calcium nr was just about the best beat combative against the boll weevil thousands of remedies were taken into tile the south some of them were worse than the boll weevil uncle sams insecticide sect icide board was kept busy remedying the remedies now they have been pretty well regulated so all the cotton planters are busy these days dusting their fields by man power mule power and even by airplane zes c r fair guess that the boll weevil will come to a violent end before long and by poison maj gen aroos amos A ri fries ries head of the phe chemical mical warfare service of oc the army has established it a research laboratory at the georgia experiment peri ment station at griffin lie he has haa cotton plants ile he Is paying a cent apiece for ive vigorous boll weevils in lots of a thousand or more ile he has at his command a mysterious lops lot of deadly poisons iHl sons and gases developed in the world war and he be ti is out to get the boll weevil |