Submitted by: Joel Hendon(3,374) Joel Hendon Log in to become a member of Joel Hendon's Fan Club!
Ballad Of The Boll Weevil
Oh, the boll weevil is a little black bug, Come from Mexico, they say, Come all the way from Texas, Just a- lookin' for a place to stay, Just a-lookin' for a home, Just a-lookin' for a home.
Now, the first time I seen the boll weevil, He was settin' on the square, The next time I seen the boll weevil, Had his whole family there, Just a-lookin' for a home, Just a-lookin' for a home.
The farmer took the boll weevil, He put him in the hot sand,
The weevil say, "This is mighty hot, But I'll stand it like a man, This'll be my home, This'll be my home.
Then the farmer took the boll weevil, And put him in a cake of ice, The weevil say to the farmer, "This is mighty cool and nice," This'll be my home, This'll be my home.
Then the boll weevil say to the doctor, "You can throw out all them pills, 'Cause when I get through with the farmer, Can't pay no doctor bills," Won't have no home, Won't have no home.
Well the merchant got half the cotton, The boll weevil got the rest, Didn't leave that farmer's wife, But one old cotton dress, And it's full of holes, And it's full of holes.
Well the farmer say to the merchant, "We ain't made but one lil’ ol’ bale; And before we give you that one, We'll fight and go to jail,"
Gotta have a home, Gotta have a home,.
And if anybody should ask you, Who wrote this lil’ ol’ song, Just tell him it was a poor farmer, With a pair of blue overalls on,
Ain't got no home, Ain't got no home.
This old southern ballad tells it just about like it was. The boll weevil actually did migrate into the cotton belt of Texas from Mexico in 1892. It is a small hard shelled insect about one-fourth inch long and it has a long, slightly curved beak(?) or snout which it uses to pierce it’s food. It feeds on the blossoms and young “squares” (mentioned in the second stanza of the ballad) that form just prior to the start of the boll of cotton. It also feeds on the very small young boll itself. The insect also migrated to every state that grew cotton and thrived where ever it went.
From the turn of the century up into the 1940’s, cotton was the prime money crop for many farmers in the southeast and much of Texas. As the boll weevil increased despite every imaginable effort being made to stop it with the chemical knowledge of the day, it became devastating to the poor farmer. As the conditions of the “great depression” began to recover and the farmer felt as if there was some hope for the future, the boll weevil was taking over. The county agents were doing all they could to find some form of relief for the situation and finally when DDT was found to kill the little varmints, heavy use of that started only to learn that it was more hazardous than the weevil.
It soon became obvious that there had to be a change made, but to what? The northern portions of some states were largely red clay and the choice of crops were limited to whatever would grow well in that type of soil. Let’s consider my home state of Alabama as an example. The rough, rolling farm land with it’s rocks and red clay (in most northern sections) made the raising of any row crops quite difficult but actually eliminated the possibility of a number of crops and especially in amounts that would bring enough revenue to sustain a family.
But much of the southern half of the state is good dark and rich soil that will accommodate most crops. In 1916, a man by the name of H. M. Sessions convinced a farmer named C. W. Baston from Enterprise, Alabama, who was badly in debt due to his cotton losses, to plant his farm in peanuts. It was a gamble because he was unsure of the market and the cost/income ratio. But it was such a success, he paid off his indebtedness after his first crop and dozens of area farmers started to follow suit. The area proved so suitable for raising peanuts that it has become a major crop for the state and prospered many of the farmers who went through so much.
In fact, the peanuts crops were so much more prosperous than the cotton had been even before the boll weevil became so destructive, that the area farmers began to celebrate the transformation. Someone suggested that they erect a monument to the boll weevil for what he had wrought for them and even though, it may have been suggested in fun, the idea grew and many of the farmers began to contribute funds toward the project. They were able to garner a large sum and so erected an impressive monument in downtown Enterprise. It has now become a tourist attraction for people passing through the state enroute to Florida.
There must be some lessons in this episode. One would be, never give up, I suppose but I am sure there are several others.
Author Biography:
Joel Hendon was born September 20, 1930 near Gadsden Alabama. He attended public schools in Cherokee County, Alabama and after serving a tour of duty in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, attended Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville, Alabama majoring in Business Administration. He became a Christian in 1948, and although he followed secular work as a career and retired from Allied Signal Aerospace in 1997, he is an avid student of the Holy Bible and related works as well as biblical history. He produces a bi-weekly publication, The Household of Faith Ezine which is free for the asking. Archives are accessible at: http://www.piedmontcoc.org/archives.html He is also the author of Final Stronghold, published in 2003, available from Amazon.
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This old southern ballad tells it just about like it was. The boll weevil actually did migrate into the cotton belt of Texas from Mexico in 1892. It is a small hard shelled insect about one-fourth inch long and it has a long, slightly curved beak(?) or snout which it uses to pierce it’s food. It feeds on the blossoms and young “squares” (mentioned in the second stanza of the ballad) that form just prior to the start of the boll of cotton. It also feeds on the very small young boll itself. The insect also migrated to every state that grew cotton and thrived where ever it went.
