It's a pleasure for me to open this year's conference and to welcome you to San Antonio. For the benefit of any first-time conferees, I might mention that the purpose of these conferences is to provide a Beltwide forum for the fruits of cotton research and development and how well they are being delivered through education, service and products for cotton production and processing.

This chain of research and technology transfer is a distinguishing feature of American agriculture. As with so many dimensions of American life, our agricultural system allows plenty of room for both public and private achievement.

The private companies that supply agriculture are well represented at this conference. as are the private consultants, who might be considered as the private sector of the extension establishment.

While this is an oversimplification of the basic role of our research and extension system, I think it helps occasionally -- even for those of us who know it -- to count our blessings.

If our society is to continue receiving the benefits of the best agricultural system in the world, we in agriculture must exercise our responsibilities in preserving and enhancing that system.

Among these responsibilities is the duty we have in insisting that our country continue to press forward in its quest for knowledge. There seems to be an

element in our society that denies any need for further inquiry into the principles of nature. But you and I know that continued progress in improving efficiency to the level required to meet the demands of the future depends on a never-ending research effort.