The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1893-01-19
COMMISSIONER NESBITT
His Monthly Talk with the Farmers
of Georgia.
Plans for the New Year,
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
ATLANTA. Ga. Jan. /. 1899

A new year, with all its hopes, opens
before us. Let us take the opportuni-
ties which it brings, and begin our work
with well defined plans ana purposes.
Our losses and disappointments are be-
hlnd us; to repine over them is folly.
10 apply the lessons which they have
taught is all we can gain from them.
UNFORTUNATELY some of us are in debt,
| but having arranged terms with cred
ttors, let each take fresh courage, and
let us all begin at once to put our plans
into execution. In doing this, let US
thoughtfully consider whether these
| plans are well matured, well digested,
evolved and chrystalized from patient
and painstaking methods, or are they
simply the result of that hopefulness
which springs afresh in our hearts with
every recurring season? Unless they
are founded on the more substantial
basis, we need scarcely hope for progress
or for success. We should consider
| thoughtfully not only wherein we have
| succeeded, but wherein we have failed,
! and to what causes those failures are due
Have we handled our affairs on business
| principles? Were our lands thoroughly
prepared before planting? Were ma
nures wisely and judiciously used ?
Were they distributed on land that had
some vlgor left III it, or did we follow
the old and oft-tried plan of attempting
TO make crop on land which, from
| years OF pnwise treatment is rendered
powerless to pay any dividend on the
| capital and labor expended in its cult
walton? In investigating these ques-
| lions find that
y OUR GREATEST MISTAKE
Les in this hopeless effort to use ele-
ments which are so firmly bound in the
| Aoll that only the "open sesame" of en-
lghtened agricultural methods will I'M
] lock them to u.s. Instead of APPLYING
these methods we go on from year to
year, hoping by taking little from each
broad acre to better our fortunes, when
THE ONLY WISE, THE ONLY TRUE PLAN,
is to take our best lands, study its needs,
| supply its Deficiencies with a liberal
| hand, and concentrate on it all the en-
ergy which isstoo often but wasted on
the opposite method BY this plan we
have an opportunity of treating the
worn acres. Each farmer should study
the best methods fer doing this con-
slider his surroundings, and adopt that
which best suits the condition of his
land and his individual means.
Let us resolve that we will not be led
away from
LEGITIMATE METHODS
because our chief money crop is now
bringing a fair price with prospect of
permanent advance. Let us not allow
this fact to blind or mislead us. We
are passing through period of great
financial depression and embarrassment.
Let us realize that this has, in large
measure, been induced by our own mis-
takes, and not allow the glittering pros
pect OF high prices next fall to allure us
into forgetting the hard lessons. of a
quarter of century Bear id mind
that while we are, to great extent, in
dependent Of all other nations in the
| production of cotton--that is, that no
| other nation can produce it probably at
10 cents, yet when we produce a cotton
crop at any profit, if this is done by di-
mlnishing the all important food crops,
WE SACRIFICE THE INDEPENDENCE
which this monopoly would give us,
| and any reduction in the price falls
with distressing effect upon us. We
| make the worlds cotton. We have no
Competition worthy of serious consider
| alton. The world S cotton market is our
own. We must utilize
THIS TREMENDOUS OPPORTUNITY
to the Very best advantage. We can
Overstock the market and ruin ourselves,
giving the profits to the foreigner, who
buys from us, or by
WISE DIVERsIFCATION
at home we can place ourselves in po-
sltlOn to take advantage of favorable
markets. In this we are more fortu-
nate than our western grain-producing
brother, who can only furnish the world
with bread after the supply in other
countries has been exhausted. The
south can produce cotton cheaper than
other countries. and to that extent she
has an opportunity to make profit on
the crop. AS yet no rival which is
strong enough to wrest this advantage
from us has entered the field. But our
industry is in
MOST CRITICAL CONDITION,
! because we put into our cotton crop
| nearly all our Drawn and muscle, as
well as the larger part of our hopes and
| plans.
THE SITUATION CAN BE IMPROVED
by directing a larger portion of our en-
ergles than Is at present given, to the
-, production of
| NEEDED FARM SUPPLIES.
If this is done generally and our lands
| treated in way to demonstrate that we
appreciate the untold blessings which
surround us, and also that we have re-
solved to cast aside our past unsatisfac-
tory methods, we can take hope, ana
will be in position to reap advantage
from any favorable changes in the mar
ket Oar lands would thus be left in
better condition for subsequent crops,
our home support would be assured,
and our cotton crop would be almost
clear profit. In short time we would
begin to realize the benefits of the
change, and eventually our section
would be enriched to an extent scarcely
dreamed of now. Nearly
EVERY FARMER WHO READS THESE LINES,
or who has read previous monthly
talks" and followed me in the policy
which l have marked out, must agree
that l am correct, and yet concert of ac-
ton among farmers seems a physical
and moral impossibility.
EACH FARMER, ACTING FOR HIMSELF,
must decide this question for his own
best interest. Let each individual re-
solve to abandon system which time
and experience has proven leads only to