PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOLL WEEVIL CONVENTION. 73 



only in Texas, but in Louisiana. That being true, why should not those 

 belated interests, which have been scoffed at by many, and the cotton 

 grower held up to ridicule, why should we not go right on the middle of 

 the road, Mr. Chairman, and make cotton among ourselves the chief con- 

 sideration, as it is the chief article of export from this country. You 

 know, and I know, that it takes years of education, to enable the cotton 

 farmer to grow diversified crops, of which we have read so much. What 

 we need to-day, my friends, is to teach the cotton grower how to grow 

 cotton more successfully, and then he will be prepared and happy to listen 

 about other crops. That is the door that will open the way to his con- 

 ridence, and 1 have the utmost hope for intelligent production along the 

 most modern lines. In our section of our State, we will be forced to pro- 

 duce under a more intelligent system or not produce at all. 



The President of our Convention calls the weevil the devil's own bug. 

 Any body can tell you how to kill the weevil but the fellows who run up 

 against him. The only thing we can do is to outrun him. We take the 

 first half of the crop, after making a quicker crop than we have been doing, 

 by forcing it; but it costs us more to do than by going to the open where 

 we are ready to make the race. "A stitch in time saves nine." "An ounce 

 of hope is worth a ton of despair." If this Convention, instead of 

 resolving, will set on foot, ways and means of lifting cotton culture, within 

 this State, within the next few years, to a point where the principles of 

 cotton culture will be better understood by the people, who produce it, you 

 will have accomplished a great deal for Louisiana. If a permanent organi- 

 zation is set on foot, I am satisfied that this end will be accomplished, and, 

 at the same time, you will have prepared and protected yourself against 

 encroachments by the pest. 



Mr. Pope, of Rapides : Mr. Chairman, on behalf of the delegates, from 

 the Parish of Rapides, I move that this Convention do now resolve itself 

 into a permanent organization; to be known as the Louisiana Cotton 

 Growers' Association. 



This motion was seconded. 



The President: It is moved and seconded that this Convention do now 

 resolve itself into a permanent organization to be known as the Louisiana 

 Cotton Growers' Association. 



Mr. Pope: I should think that name should be sufficiently broad to 

 cover our purposes. We do not want to admit to the world that Louisi- 

 ana has the boll weevil; and there is no use in this Convention resolving 

 itself into a boll weevil convention, when we have no boll weevil, and do 

 not propose to have any. 



Mr. Brazeale. It seems to^e that we had better adopt the idea that 

 this is a permanent boll weevil convention, with the motto that we are 

 going to kill it. All the resolutions of this body, as I understand them, 

 will go to the point of announcing to the world, that we are on the battle 



