The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1913-07-25
TEXAS DRY FARMING congress
ENDS INTERESTING SESSION AT
SABINAL, TEXAS.
Hondo viii Be Next Meeting Place.
Or. B. F. Barley Elected Presi-
dent-Editor Davis Speaks.

Sabinal, Textile fifth annual SeS-
sion OF the Texas Dry Farming Con-
gress was formally closed Thursday.
Hondo was selected for the meeting
place next year Officers elected for
the ensuing year were: DR.. Benjamin
F. Barley of Alpine, president; A. J.
Durham of Sabinal, vice president;
Fletcher Davis of Hondo, secretary.
A resolution was adopted opposing
constitutional amendment S. ]. r. Is.
After the business session the Wom-
ems Club of Sabinal gave reception,
at which an excellent musical selec-
ton was rendered. Good addresses
were made as follows: conservation
of the Soil," Colonel Henry Exall,
president Texas Congress; Growing
Pecans in West Texas" H. w. Knox,
president Texas Farmers Congress.
The session just closed was I'M
doubtedly the most successful in the
history of the congress.
The following speech in response to
the address of welcome on behalf OF
the press was delivered by Fletcher
Davis, publisher of the Hondo Anvil
Herald:
We read in holy writ that after God
had made man and placed him in the
beautiful Garden Of Eden. "A river
went out of Eden to water the gar
den." Genesis 2:10)
| interpret this to mean that man
in his first purity, fresh from the land
of his Divine Greater, was an irriga-
zionist.
l blame no man for wanting to be
an irrigationist now.
hope to live to see every mountain
gorge in this section damned SO that
the storm waters may be impounded
and river made to go out of the res
ervoir to water the myriads of gar
dens in the broad, rich valleys below.
The work has already been begun
by men of broad vision who can see
the possibilities of mighty success
looming large upon the horizon of the
future
And If the hopes and the moral and
material support of the press can
hasten the dawning of that great
time it will not be long in coming.
But, be the possibilities of irrigation
what they may, SO long as man must
eat bread by the sweat of his face the
vast majority of mankind must live by
dry-farming and dry-farming methods.
1t is. this fact that lends interest and
Importance to the great work of the
Texas Dry Farming Congress and kin
dred organizations.
The gathering OF data and the ex-
change of ideas and experiences gain
ed in a study of methods of plant Sc
lection, seed preservation, cultural
methods, soil analysis and the thou
sands of other things connected with
scientific agriculture-not to mention
that matter of transcendent impor-
lance, the conservation of moisture
which we have at such meetings as
this, is the little leaven that shall
leaven the whole lump of agricultural
development that shall one day trans
form present day methods of farming
and make all the desert places OF the
| land blossom as the rose.
1t is then that the rivers that come
out of Gods Eden of love among the
clouds shall be found sufficient, with
mans conservation thereof, to water
all of this fair earth and once again
transform it into a paradise for the
abode of man!
In the realization Of this dream the
press has glorious and useful mis-
sion to perform.
1t is not alone the mission of the
press to consume the farmers surplus
tomatoes and cabbage-although they
are never refused but are thankfully
received when rendered on subscrip
tion-but it is the more glorious mis-
sion of the press to carry to the multi
tudes that can not join in your assem-
blies the message of what you dc
here,