King Cotton's Curse

In the deep South last week, boll weevils began to stir for their attack upon the 1930 cotton crop. From ground cracks, from old cotton stalks, from patches of dead grass and weeds, the continental swarm of little quarter-inch beetles crawled out of hibernation to meet the warming sun, to twitch and test the long, sturdy snouts with which they will bore into billions of green cotton bolls this summer. Patient planters, breaking up their ground for the new crop, plowed legions of the pest back into the ground to destruction. But legions more crawled out prepared to multiply. Not plows nor prayers nor poison can halt Boll Weevil. His race goes marching on, month after month, year after year, to the dissatisfaction of planters and consumers alike.

Boll Weevil crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico in 1892, within 30 years had established itself as a permanent infestation of the whole cotton-growing South. The females lay their eggs within the unripe pods, the grubs devour the green lint and within three weeks are ready to breed themselves, In 1921, before the ravage of the weevil had been fairly discounted, the pest destroyed six million bales of cotton, cut that year's crop yield to less than eight million dollars, a disturbingly low record.

Fortnight ago from Athens, Ga., came word that Dr. H. J. Miller, professor of botany at the University of Georgia, had found an insect parasite known as bracon mellitor which he believes can be used to combat Boll Weevil. Its larvae will devour weevil larvae inside the bolls without damaging the cotton. Familiar to all entomologists is the general principle of pest control by parasites.* But before he could put his discovery into common use Dr. Miller had to hit upon a commercially practical method of spreading bracon mellitor larvae through weevil-infested cotton fields.

Paradoxically, many a southern planter views with alarm the possibility of controlling or eradicating Boll Weevil. In the South are two schools of weevil thought. One school laments the curse which reduces the cotton yield per acre, increases production cost, is already discounted in the market price. No less stoutly the other group holds that the weevil is really a disguised blessing, "the best thing that evuh happened to the South, Suh! Why, if it weren't for boll weevil, Cotton would be selling for fo' cents a pound right now!"

School of Weevil Thought No. 2 was more interested last week in a step taken by Mississippi than in Dr. Miller's discovery. Over and over cotton planters have heard that their only salvation lies in crop limitation. It remained for the Mississippi State Senate to take the first definite step in that direction by passing a bill (the House had yet to act) providing that no grower could plant more than 60% of his total crop acreage in any one year in cotton, under a maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine or three months in the county jail. Mississippi does not, however, intend to cut its cotton production singlehanded. Its law would become effective only when other Southern States producing a total of ten million bales should vote to apply a similar restriction to cotton acreage,

Meanwhile cotton prices continued to slump in open distress. Spot at interior markets was down to 132-c- per Ib. Planters, urged to join the new $30,000,000 cotton cooperative sponsored by the Federal Farm Board, wondered whether the Farm Board would enter the cotton market, as it has entered the wheat market, and buy spot and futures to bull up sagging prices. The Board, however, seemed to have all it could manage at one time, "stabilizing" wheat prices.

Wheat Bolstered. Last week President Hoover asked Congress to give the Farm Board another $100,000,000 cash, which would bring its operating funds up to $250,000,000. This request lent substance to the statement by Farm Board Chairman Legge that the Board was prepared, if necessary, to buy up all U. S. wheat in sight (some 160,000,000 bu.) to prevent another price slump. To down the growing accusation that the Board was speculating in wheat through its purchase of May futures by the Grain Stabilization Corp.. Chairman Legge announced that the Board expected to take delivery on those contracts.

* The Japanese beetle, ravisher of fruit trees, is fought by a tiny parasite imported in cold storage by the U. S. Department of Agriculture from Japan.

So strict is the U. S. Interstate Quarantine Law against this pest that the Pennsylvania R. R. was last week fined $1,400 because it hauled three carloads of dirt about the Edison Labora-lory at Menlo Park, N. J., to Dearborn, Mich., lor Henry Ford's Light Jubilee Celebration without first treating them chemically.

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