Boll Weevil Blues

Boll Weevil Blues PDF

Author: James C. Giesen

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2012-08-01

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 0226292851

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Between the 1890s and the early 1920s, the boll weevil slowly ate its way across the Cotton South from Texas to the Atlantic Ocean. At the turn of the century, some Texas counties were reporting crop losses of over 70 percent, as were areas of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi. By the time the boll weevil reached the limits of the cotton belt, it had destroyed much of the region’s chief cash crop—tens of billions of pounds of cotton, worth nearly a trillion dollars. As staggering as these numbers may seem, James C. Giesen demonstrates that it was the very idea of the boll weevil and the struggle over its meanings that most profoundly changed the South—as different groups, from policymakers to blues singers, projected onto this natural disaster the consequences they feared and the outcomes they sought. Giesen asks how the myth of the boll weevil’s lasting impact helped obscure the real problems of the region—those caused not by insects, but by landowning patterns, antiquated credit systems, white supremacist ideology, and declining soil fertility. Boll Weevil Blues brings together these cultural, environmental, and agricultural narratives in a novel and important way that allows us to reconsider the making of the modern American South.

Demonstration Work in Cooperation with Southern Farmers

Demonstration Work in Cooperation with Southern Farmers PDF

Author: Seaman Ashahel Knapp

Publisher:

Published: 1908

Total Pages: 24

ISBN-13:

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It has been proved by our cooperative demonstration work, that by following the instructions of the bureau of plant Industry a good crop of cotton can be raised in the worst-infested boll-weevil districts and despite the ravages of this pest. It is possible that the future may discover some better method of meeting the boll-weevil problems, but experience has shown that the method outlined is the only safe one at present. The boll weevil has now covered a large portion of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and several counties in Mississippi. It is annually invading new territory with a column 600 miles long and in numbers sufficient to cover every stalk of cotton to a width of 30 miles. A cotton crop can be produced despite the boll weevil, and the sooner American farmers face the situation, the better it will be for all concerned. To demonstrate the truth of this theory is one object of the Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration Work. In the foregoing pages have been mentioned only some of the lines of demonstration which have been undertaken for rural uplifting. The results have far exceeded our expectations, and the farmers have accepted the work gratefully and have cooperated to the best of their ability in every undertaking. It is along such lines as these that great economies can be practiced and valuable reforms wrought for the betterment of rural conditions and for solving the problems of the farm.

The Boll Weevil Ball

The Boll Weevil Ball PDF

Author:

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2002-09

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13: 9780805067125

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When a very, very small beetle decides to attend a ball, he won't let anything stop him -- not even the danger of being squished on the dance floor.

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