Letter from C. R. Byrnes, Natchez, Miss., to G. H. Alford: "We are just
closing our second year of serious disaster from this little pest. We show
a decided improvement in 1910 over the year of 1909. Our acreage is about
one-half of what it was last year and we will make about the same crop as
last year. In my individual case, I made last year seventeen bales on 150
acres; this year I will make the same crop on eighty acres. You are aware
that I do not live on my own farm and have only negro tenants. I have
directed the management by not exceeding two visits to the farm each week
during the working season and have followed the government's directions as
well as I could, situated as I am. If I had lived on my farm far better
results could have been obtained. I have now more corn than I will require
for next year's crop and a good start of hogs and cattle. My farm has been
more than self-sustaining this year and I believe I will have a splendid
return next year, as I have so little to buy.
[Illustration: A tractor turning four furrows]
My success is due to the aid of Government instructions. To illustrate:
One of my negro tenants, when I told him in the month of May that he must
send his entire family into his cotton patch and pick every punctured
square from the cotton stalks and burn them and also kill the weevils to
be found, objected; said he did not believe in it. I replied that the
instructions were not original with me, that they were from the United
States Government, after a fifteen years' study of the boll weevil, and if
he thought he knew more about it than the Government I would try to place
him in the employ of the Government and get one of their men to come and
work his crop under his, the tenant's, direction. This remark had the
desired effect. He got the weevils and will make three bales of cotton on
eight acres, while he made only one and one-half bales on sixteen acres
last year.
Being a member of our Board of Supervisors, I insisted that our President,
manager of the convict farm, plant five acres in cotton and work it under
Government's instructions. He was opposed to planting any cotton. I
insisted on it, stating that I was not after the money it would bring, but
wanted it as an experiment and aid to our farmers, knowing that the labor
was there under absolute control, and that there would be no reason why it
could not be properly farmed. The five acres were planted and properly
worked--two heavy bales have been ginned and another light bale will be
picked. Now this was on thin upland, fertilized and worked as you would
have directed. Splendid results, is it not?
You are aware that this year and last year gave us too much rain in our
section to successfully combat the weevil, but we have doubled the yield
under similar conditions for each year and this increase is certainly due
to the good work done by the Government in our behalf. Many more farmers
will next year follow more closely your instructions and if we can get a
normal season as to rainfall, the cotton crop will, in my opinion, show
much more decidedly the value of the Government's work.
No doubt but this pest will spread until it covers the entire cotton belt
of the south. I can see work for you all the way to the Atlantic
Seaboard--work in front of you and work behind you. Have you ever thought
what a barren waste there might have been in the wake of this little giant
were it not for the valuable assistance rendered by our Government? As it
is we cover up his tracks almost as fast as they are made. Stand by us
until we are able to stand alone. Then you and all connected with you in
this good work will forever have the heart-felt thanks of all the farmers
here."
[Illustration: The modern method of preparing the soil]