PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOLL WEEVIL CONVENTION. 49 



No single agricultural crop gives such constant employment to so large 

 a number of workers in such diversified lines, and the success and pros- 

 perity of a large section of our country is so closely linked with the cul- 

 tivation and manufacturing of cotton that a crop disaster would be a na- 

 tional calamity, the effects of which would not be local only, but would 

 be keenly felt throughout the land. 



A crop failure in any one section means disaster to planter, merchant 

 and banker alike and a repeated crop failure means ruin. 



The transportation charges on cotton and cotton products alone amount 

 to more than $25,000,000 annually and the transportation of bagging, ties, 

 gins, machinery, compresses, farm implements, mules, horses and labor to 

 gather the crops amount to nearly as much more, to say nothing of the 

 immense sums paid for transporting feed, provisions and other supplies 

 necessary for the planter and his hands. 



Destroy our cotton crop and what would be the value of the stocks and 

 bonds of the transportation lines which now traverse the entire cotton 

 belt? 



The rich and thriving manufacturing towns of New England keep 

 close watch on our growing crop, and consumption seems already to have 

 outstripped production, and the cry is for more cotton. 



Destroy our cotton crop, stop every spindle in New England and 

 Southern mills and what untold misery and suffering would be inflicted 

 on thousands of operatives and what would be the ultimate results of the 

 widespread disaster to the farmer, merchant, capitalist and banker? 



A total and repeated failure of the cotton crop would practically 

 bankrupt every merchant and banker in the cotton belt, and the results 

 Of such a far-reaching disaster would be ruinous to the general financial 

 interests of the United States. 



While cotton is produced in the South only, the East, North and West 

 are vitally interested in good crops being raised and it is of national 

 importance that for all time this vast country of ours should be recog- 

 nized as the greatest cotton producing country of the world. 



In these days of keen commercial competition we find Great Britain, 

 Russia, Germany, France and many of the small nations making an 

 earnest effort to raise cotton in competition with the American product. 

 While none of this competition promises to be serious it is wise to keep 

 vigilant guard and adopt heroic measures against any pest which may 

 threaten our crops or our supremacy as cotton producers. Nature has 

 been most lavish in her gifts to the South a glorious climate, nearly 

 every variety of minerals and metals, large forests of choice timber and 

 millions of the most fertile and productive acres, capable of producing 

 nearly every agricultural product and especially adapted to cotton. 



We can produce that staple product more easily, more economically 

 and more profitably than any nation on the globe, and it is our individual 



