7O PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOLL WEEVIL CONVENTION. 



men, to indicate to you that it was considered an error to call a Boll 

 Weevil Convention only a short time ago. But we are beginning to see 

 clearly the enormous proposition that confronts us in the boll weevil dis- 

 trict, and we are beginning to take it up in a business like way. First, we 

 had a Boll Weevil Convention, and that, at the last meeting, grew into the 

 Texas Cotton Convention, a convention that undertakes to consider not 

 only the boll weevil, but also the boll worm, root-rot, or as so many 

 people, call it, alkali in cotton, and all the other diseases which the cotton 

 plant is heir to, and the different varieties of cotton in the boll weevil dis- 

 trict and outside of it, a permanent cotton convention to safeguard the 

 cotton interests of Texas. Our ideas have expanded upon this subject, 

 Mr. President. We are growing wiser, whether we are growing in grace 

 or not. We are going to see the problem, itself, as it divides itself under 

 several practical hands. The same lines of demarcation or expression will 

 not present themselves to the people of Louisiana, in all probability, but 

 some of the lines of demarcation will be found here, whenever the pest 

 makes its inroads upon Louisiana. 



What is the situation in Texas, from a farmer's standpoint. Some ex 

 cellent suggestions have been offered with reference to the farmer's inter- 

 est in the boll weevil. How does it affect the Texas farmers? He may 

 be divided into several classes. We have the large farmer, the landlord 

 of. extensive interests, as you have. In addition to that, we have the 

 small cotton farmer, such as you have in the Northern portion of this 

 State. We have a few independent negro cotton farmers, not tenants. 

 We have a large foreign poulation in our State, who are independent cot- 

 ton farmers, including Germans, Bohemians, Italians and Swedes. What 

 is the effect of the boll weevil upon these several classes of people? 



I will call your attention to these facts, hoping that that they may offer 

 some encouragement to you. The people who combat the boll weevil 

 most successfully, are the independent cotton growers, people who apply 

 their minds to the situation, who thoroughly understand what the scien- 

 tific expert has said, and, reasoning from his statements to their own 

 local conditions, make a connection between the two, and raise their cot- 

 ton in spite of the boll weevil. 



Mr. Chairman, the boll weevil has caused more serious study of the cot- 

 ton production in Texas, within the last two years, than had been given 

 to the subject within the twenty-five years preceding that time. The study 

 of how the cotton crop grows, how long it takes a form to turn into a 

 grown boll, the size of the different bolls, produced by different varieties 

 of cotton, whether or not the most desirable cottons are the long limbed 

 cottons, or the cluster cottons, just how long it takes from the time the 

 cotton plant comes out and shows above the ground, before it attempts 

 to put out its squares ; whether or not a fertilizer can be used with profit 

 upon our alluvial soil, and if so, what kind of fertilizer? This is how the 



