PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOLL WEEVIL CONVENTION. If 



New Orleans; G. W. Bolton, Rapides ; W. C Hughes, Bossier; Prof. 

 H. A. Morgan, Baton Rouge; G. W. Montgomery, Madison. 

 On motion the convention adjourned for dinner. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



Colonel Charles Schuler, Chairman of the Convention, called the mem- 

 bers to order at 3:30 o'clock p. m., and introduced Dr. S. A. Knapp, 

 representative of Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture. 



Dr. Knapp spoke as follows : 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention. I wish to correct 

 an error. It seems that the impression got abroad that the Secretary 

 of Agriculture was to prepare a paper, or had prepared a paper which 

 I was to read. His Excellency, your Governor, forwarded an invitation 

 to Secretary Wilson, to be present at this Convention; it was impossible 

 for him to attend, and he forwarded the letter to me, with the request 

 that I attend; but no address was prepared by him, nor even any instruc- 

 tions. But I am in receipt of full information regarding his views, not 

 only by being in contact with him whilst we travelled through Louisiana 

 and Texas, but what has occurred since, and by the correspondence that 

 has occurred between the Secretary and the President. 



He wished me to express to you his regret that he could not be present 

 for he has taken a great interest in the invasion of the State of Texas 

 by the boll weevil. His journey here was made a few week ago entirely 

 to understand the situation, and to be prepared to combat it as far as 

 possible. I think his views have settled. First, I do not misrepresent 

 him in saying that whilst he favors diversification to an extent at least 

 that every farmer will produce the full materials necessary for his farm, 

 yet that is really no remedy for the situation; that where a people are 

 adjusted to one line of work, like the growing of cotton, it requires a 

 number of years, a great many years, to adapt them to other things and 

 lines of agriculture, and there would be a period of long depression 

 and in some portion of ruin, before such a stage could be reached. It 

 would involve not only the ruin of the farmer, but of the towns and of 

 the cities that are all organized on the basis of cotton as a cash crop. 

 It involves more. We are at present producing not only the food material 

 in the United States that we consume, but enough to supply all the 

 demands of the foreign markets of the world. Now, if the cotton States 

 should abandon the production of cotton, diversifying in the line of 

 food products, they would be combatting with our present food producing 

 States, and the result would be over production, a crash in the market, 

 and ruin to the whole country. Now, upon that basis the citizens of 

 this country must all be agreed. There is no question before the American 

 people on which they can be better agreed than that this has ceased to be 

 a local or a State question, but is a national question; that the farmer 



