Luther Fuller, agricultural agent for Southern Railroad, was the main speaker. Fuller filled in for Dr. George Washington Carver, an agriculture scientist who headed the agriculture department at Tuskegee University. In 1915, just as the boll weevil was arriving in the Southeast, Carver was inventing new ways to use the peanut and peanut oils in order to create a cash market for peanuts. He also advocated the practice of crop rotation to prevent depletion of nutrients in the soil. Carver was a primary inspiration in the decision by banker H.M. Sessions to buy peanut seeds and introduce the crop into Coffee County.