Boll weevil and drought
39b - assess the impact of the boll weevil and drought on Georgia
Boll Weevil
The Boll Weevil was a small, grayish, long snouted beetle from Mexico that had come to the South in the 1890s. It destroyed the primary source of income for many farmers: Cotton. They hatch in the yellow flower of the cotton plant. When the flower becomes a boll, the places where the fiber is formed, the larvae feeds on the growing white, fluffy cotton, rendering the cotton useless. The boll weevil came to GA in 1915, destroyed thousands of acres of GA’s agricultural crop. In 1923, cotton bales went from 2.8 million in 1914, to 600,000. The post war price was around 16 cents a pound. |
Drought
In 1924, a major drought came to GA. The destruction of the boll weevils grew to a stop due to the sun baked fields, but numerous crops were ruined. Between 1920 and 1925, around 375,000 GA farmers left. Working farms went from 310,132-249,095. Due to farms failing, banks started to fail, which led to depression in GA. |