68 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOLL WEEVIL CONVENTION. 



Mississippi river ,and along the Ouachita and the Red rivers, that saved 

 not only the lands he had already in cotton and other products, but re- 

 claimed millions of acres of other lands, and laid a monument to the 

 thrift and the energy and the gej,iU& of the Southern man. Come on 

 further down still, when, as has been said by our friend Capt. Marston 

 this morning, the catepillar came into his field as a new enemy; did he 

 give up, did he quit? When he saw his fields of most promising cotton 

 devasted and ruined, sometimes within a night, did he quit? No, but 

 again summoning to his assistance, scientists and practical men, men of 

 sense and experience, he evolved a remedy that absolutely put the caterpil- 

 lar out of business. Now the caterpillar has no more dread in the 

 farmer's mind, than if he had never seen it. When the low price of cotton 

 struck this country, when for years we sold it at the exact cost of produc- 

 tion, and at times at a loss to the Southern planter did the Southern 

 farmer lose hope and give up? He simply changed his tactics. He simply 

 called to his assistance again those scientists and those men that have 

 delved into theories and science, and he made more cotton with less work ; 

 and evolved from what seemed to be a calamity, a blessing in disguise, 

 and rose superior to the situation again. 



Now gentlemen this is a forty years record of the cotton planter; and 

 although this pest now menaces us, and threatens us almost with utter 

 annihailation, and destruction, we cannot but believe that it will be but a 

 very short time before some one will evolve some practical and cheap 

 remedy that will once more put us where we have been at the top of the 

 ladder. 



Professor Stubbs : I believe we are about to close now. There is one 

 thing I want to bring before this audience before we adjourn. I be- 

 lieve it is universally conceded that this Convention is a success. We 

 have gathered together here the most representative cotton planters of tbe 

 State, and in numbers sufficient to give weight and expression to the wishes 

 of the planters and farmers of this State. We have met here to attend what 

 has been called the Boll Weevil Convention. Now the question arises, 

 and I want to propound it to this audience to-day: Shall this Conven- 

 tion be perpetuated? 



In Texas, a large amount of good has already been accomplished by an 

 organization known as a Boll Weevil Convention. My friend, Professor 

 Connell, is Secretary of that Convention, and I might say, has been the 

 life of it since its organization. It has been through that organization 

 that Secretary Wilson has been importuned, and those farms established 

 and experiments carried on in Texas. I think this Convention should con- 

 sider the question, whether we shall adjourn without permanent organi- 

 zation, or whether we shall have a permanent organization, that shall 

 continue with the work that we have begun in this Convention. Profes- 

 sor Connell is here, and before we adjourn this Convention, I would like 



