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ey Ed Eakin WITHIN THE NEXT NINE months, an attempt will be made to solve the problem of cotton gin smoke within the city of Robstown. This problem, far from being confined to operators of Robstown’s five gins or members of the city council, is city-wide in its scope. It has numerous ramifications and extends into every phase of com munity life. While cotton gins have been Robstown’s No. 1 industry since the very birth of this Coastal Bend agricultural capital, the problem of cotton gin smoke is a relatively recent one. IN THE EARLY DAYS, Al though Robstown had as many as 14 gins operating here at one time, gin smoke was no problem at all. This can be attributed to a num ber of causes. First, at that time, all the cotton in this area was picked from the bars and gin trash was kept to a minimum. Second, what little gin trash resulted was either taken home by the farmer to be used as fertilizer for crop lands, or was hauled off by gin ners themselves. William Bauer, one of Robs town’s early ginners recalls how he not only hauled off the gin trash of his own gin, but from every other gin in town. The trash was used to build up the soil on his land north of town. _ In a third place, the pink boll worm was not known in this area and restrictions on moving gin trash had not been imposed. THE ADVENT OF THIS TINY red worm, which has caused, untold millions of dollars damage to South Texas cotton fields alone, starting can get the blame for the problem of gin smoke. Around 1941, the pink bollworm had become such a threat to the cotton industry that the U.S. De partment of Agriculture moved to control its spread. Areas were set up and quaran tine measures imposed. The move ment of cotton outside the area was restricted and check stations sprang up to place a cordon around the infested region. Inside the area, the USDA reg ulated the movement of gin trash and set up deadlines for planting and plowing of cotton. Ginners were instructed to destroy the gin trash or find some method of kill ing the worms in the trash. THE SIMPLIEST AND MOST effective method of complying with the regulations was to burn the trash on the gin site. In the be ginning most all the gins turned to this method. Gradually, gins began to experi ment with other methods with the aim of conserving the valuable gun trash and of alleviating the nuis ance caused by the smoke and cin ders. Some methods proved successful in some areas, while others were abandoned. Live steam was used to attempt to kill the worms in the trash; incinerators, such as those built several years ago by a num ber of Robstown gins, were erect ed. Composting was tried — suc cessfully in some areas, unsuccess fully in others — machines were designed for grinding and crushing the bars, while some gins devised methods to sterilize most of the worms, and then hauled the rest outside of municipal areas for burning. THIS YEAR IN ROBSTOWN, in the midst of the fastest-moving cotton harvest in history, the gin smoke became intolerable — es pecially in areas directly in the path of the smoke. Businesses were effected. One service station re ported sales drop as much as 50 percent. Reports of sickness — es pecially in infants — due to the smoke began to come in. To say the least, the smoke and cinders were a nuisance to more than half the residents of the Robstown com munity. This year was worse than other years for two reasons. One was that for some three weeks, ginners worked around the clock to harvest cotton. The other was that more cotton was pulled than at any time in history and the amount of gin trash to be disposed of nearly dou bled. MEANWHILE Ap 4 Cong ence between Robstowy gin ators and Members of council, ginners Agreed to Some method of destroys, trash besides burning it at Later at a Meeting of Council, councilmen drafted ter to ginners informing as of January 1, 1955, an once prohibiting the burn, trash within the city, we strictly enforced. Shortly after the close of ning season, Robstown Wasp, visit by Alton H. Diserens gineer in industrial hygiene the Bureau of Sanitary ing of the Stated Health. Diserens, who had Visited town on previous occasions at request of local health , came armed with a number commendations of alleviating, smoke problem. He divided them into fe parate recommendations, will be explained in - detail series of articles to appear week in the Robstown Record. This series of articles published with the sincere that this problem that has innuially confronted this can can be solved to the best jn ‘of ginners and residents alike
Newspaper Details
Robstown Record
Robstown, Texas, US
Thu, Sep 30, 1954
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Carolyn G.
