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Tuesday, August 2, 2022

Yes, Monkeys Go After Insects; No, You Shouldn't Let Them Loose in Cotton Field to Catch Boll Weevils, Declares Farmer, Aug. 1, 1922

Monkeys Fail as Boll Weevil Eradicators

McAlester, Okla., July 27—Using a wild-eyed bunch of chattering monkeys in a cotton field here to combat the pesky boll weevil has proved a flat failure. One cotton grower, in fact, who tried the experiment never wants to look at a monkey again.

A Gypsy band stopped at his farm and a cage of monkeys were released to exercise. They immediately showed much interest in hunting for all manner of bugs and insects.

The cotton grower had a bright thought. He had the Gypsy owner turn the monkeys loose in his cotton field, to make war on the boll weevil. The monkeys, however, did not take kindly to farm labor. They just about made a wreck out of the cotton field, sent the farmer’s dogs yelping under the barn in defeat and defied the capture during four hours of continuous vaudeville.

“I’ll believe all they say about these new-fangled monkey glands, if that’s what made them grinning apes raise such hob in my field,” said the cotton farmer as he looked at the wreckage.

From The Western Sentinel, Winston-Salem, N.C., Aug. 1, 1922. To read about the reference to “new-fangled monkey glands” in the last paragraph, go to historicallystrange.com/monkey-gland-transplants/. A scientist had experimented with monkey gland transplants to help men with erectile problems. Of course, the transplants caused much more serious problems.

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