The Brunswick times. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 188?-1900, 1897-04-04
{ DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.

DON~
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,
ATLANTA, April 1, 1897.
The cotton crop is now the all alb
sorbing question; the area to be planted;
the preparation of the land; the fertil-
izer best suited to its needs; the best
seed to use; the most judicious manner
of planting and the after cultivation,
all come in for a share Of attention.
Conventions have met and passed reso-
lutions; addresses have. been made;
letters have been written, and at last,
each individual farmer must settle for
himself, according to his surroundings
and his ability to undertake "a large or
saA-eReR,- laetiaer he will plant only
q limited number of acres, or stretch
out the area over vast fields. Before he
makes up his mind he should consider
several points carefully. First, the
quality of land in which the crop Is
planted. AS so often urged through
these columns. it does not pay to plant
little commercial fertilizer. as an ar
tificial stimulus to force the plants for
ward. 1t is far safer to concentrate the
labor, the fertilizer and other expenses
of preparing for planting and cultivat-
ing the crop in few acres in good
condition." than to handle four or five
times that number of acres, from which
the best part of the fertility has been
used up by previous crops. Again, the
cotton area should be regulated by our
home supplies No man has the moral
right to risk the bread and meat of his
family on the most uncertain outcome
of an uncertain cotton market. 1t is
just as if he were to cast his other
home interests into the ever changing
whirlpool Of the stock market, and trust
to luck to bring them out uninjured.
But having secured his home supplies,
believe that every farmer has a
right to plant as many acres in cotton
as his best judgment dictates. But it
must be an enlightened Judgment,
and to that end farmers should
lose no opportunity of informing them
selves on every point affecting this ques-
ton. Just now the whole of Europe is
small spark might cause conf1agra-
ton which would set the eastern hemis-
phere ablaze, and knock the very bot
tom out of the cotton market. Another
fact to be remembered, is the condition
of the cotton mills-they are, almost
without exception, crowded with goods
and spinners are not in condition to en-
ter the market largely. Cotton goods
we're never cheaper but trade was never
duiler. The financial affairs of the
country are in such disjointed state,
that almost every branch of trade is in
an uncertain and unsatisfactory condi-
ton. 1t is true that our finances should
be on a firm basis, but the fact remains
that they are not, and that we have as
yet failed to receive the promised resto-
ration of confidence What we may be
able to do in the future remains to be
seen, our duty just now is to ''hedge"
against present difficulties. If the farm
ers, as a class, will do this, then if a
crash should come-they of all classes,
will feel the shock less and will be able
to bear with comparative calmness dis
asters, which will drivethe general bus
mess of the country to the wall.
THE HEAVY RAINS AND THE DISASTERS IN
SOUTHWEST GEORGIA
Since the above was written, the
wires have brought the news of the ter
rible storms, with loss Of life and prop.
erty, in Southwest Georgia. For large
part of my life my home was among
these people. and the sorrows of that
stricken section seem almost my own.
To the parents and families, who have
lost their loved ones, can only offer
my tenderest sympathy from heart
which knows what this agony of suffer
ing means.
To the farmers who have suffered so
severely in their farming methods, I
would say don't despair. Take courage
and begin afresh. 1t is better that this
disaster should have come now than
later on, when, to repair the damage,
would be impossible.
THE HEAVY RAINS
throughout the state have greatly re-
tarded all farm work, but the winds
during the latter part of March dried
off the land and enabled the farmers to
get in some telling strokes during the
last sunshiny days of the month The
planting Of the different crops will be
necessarily much delayed, but remem-
Der that. one year during my residence
in Southwest Georgia, we were visited
by just such destructive spring floods,
and the prospects for success were ark
indeed. But also remember that we
plucked up courage and went to work,
and that in the fall we gathered about
as much cotton and corn and other
crops as in an average year, and our
troubles in the spring were then for
gotten.
GEORGIA'S EXHIBIT AT THE TENNESSEE
CENTENNIAL
We would be greatly obliged to any
farmers, who have specimens of last
years grain crops in the Sheqf, such as
oats, rye, barley, wheat, rice, the mil
lets any variety of native or cultivated
grasses, if they would spare us, if only
little, for the Georgia exhibit at the
Tennessee centennial. We would be
glad also to secure specimens of euery