Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-08-25
The Progress of Georgia.
Boston Advertiser.

The most reluctant observer must be
impressed with the energy and persis-
tence of the Georgia people in trying to
make their State in fact, as in name, the
Empire State of the South. Knowing
that agriculture and manufacturing, and
not mere talk of the greatness of the
commonwealth, will build up their com
munities, the GeOrgians are developing
a remarkable degree of interest in these
departments. The same men who, a
quarter of century ago, were CRYING
out for ''more land, more negroes, more
cotton" and committed their land to the
care of white or black overseers, often
incompetent, are now said to be practi.
cal economists, personally interested in
managing their fields and able to discuss
the principles of paying method of
agriculture. The vaporings and boast
ing which the war stopped so abruptly
have not been renewed in any considera.
BILE degree. The harshness of poverty
has been a wholesome stimulus. The
good soil is well used. The results are
munifcent.
A Georgia journal recounts the exhi-
tions, genealogical, horticultural, floral
and agricultural in general, which the
people of the State have held within a
few weeks Better than the display of
flowers, and fruits and other products are
the reported signs that an intelligent,
scientific and prudent method of raising
crops has taken the place of the loose
and lavish process which formerly salts
fed the ordinary Georgia farmer. A
farmers convention, recently held,
showed that what once would have been
called Yankee methods, that is, ecnnOmi
cal and sensible plans, are not considered
beneath the Georgian dignity. The peo-
pie are glad to make money; they need 1t,
and the way to make it is to treat the
earth skillfully and tenderly, whereas
formerly the land was abused by having
no rest allowed it, and by being subject
ed to a rude and extraVagant system of
cultivation. What signify good soil, a
plenty of water, an equable climate, and
a moderate cost of living, natural advan-
tages of great moment, if the citizens are
too ignorant or too proud to use the OPP
pOrtunities within their reach7 1t often
has been said that Northern population.
thrifty, plucky and tenacious, would
soon change the face Of any Southern
State, and grow rich in the experiment.
The Georgians are not ashamed to con-
fess that the war made them poor, and
that they mean to recover their standing
by hard work and by the importation of
every expedient which will reinforce
their own resources.
This is the conquest of the South
which the North has desired, and it is
the sort of conquest which leaves no bit
terness, though pride may suffer for a
time. The small Northern farms used
to be laughed at by Southerners, but now
small farms are getting fashionable at
the South. The close estimates and the
attention to petty details made the New
England farmer appear as a narrow and
small-souled being in the sight of the
visitors whose plantations stretched away,
broad and bountiful, and Knocked the
narrowness and reluctance of the fields
which gave to New England homes their
substance To-day the Southerner. who
is progressive, il not afEaid to be known