Boll weevil damage to the cotton crop of North Carolina is more general than most of the farmers realize, and is going to materially reduce the crop estimates, if findings by Frank Parker, state crop statistician just back from a field trip of more than 200 miles, on which he was accompanied by the Tribune correspondent. Cotton bolls were examined from numerous fields in four different counties, and in almost every case extensive weevil damage was found. In many cases nearly ripe bolls had been punctured and live grubs were found inside bolls that from external appearances seemed to be in perfect condition, except for the absence of new blooms or squares.
Farmers in this same territory, however, seem to minimize the weevil damage and claim that it has been too dry for the weevil. However, despite the fact that the weevils developed late, they were not too late to get busy on the bolls after they had begun to develop.
The cotton which had poorer stands and which as a result has ripened and matured earlier bids fair to produce a better yield than the later yields, which have produced good stands but which is fruiting more slowly, as it is in these fields that the weevils have done damage. Many bolls which have been counted on to yield a full boll will produce but half boll at most, as the result of the weevils’ work.
Cotton picking is going ahead rapidly in the southeastern counties and a good quality of cotton is being produced generally. Much of the best cotton through this section is a second crop, having been seeded after potato crops had been harvested this spring.
From the front page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Saturday, September 11, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-09-11/ed-1/seq-1/
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