The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1899-04-13

: taken the lead in the "all cotton" craze
folly. For the past two years, tntil the
mesies of the spider web mortgages
woven around her hospisaols homes by
the crop OF 1898 that brought disaster
and ruin to very many, have redoubled
their meshes on very many more in
| 1885,
But Georgians have an almost infii.
mite power of active potential endur-
ance and energy, and their helpmeets
are in every way worthy OF them if
their work were shown to them.
A farmer near Atlanta brought 100
fine turkeys here lately and sold them
for cash as quickly as cotton for $l05 to
the retail trade. sum equal to seven
bales of cotton at centsl They cost
absolutely nothing but care and protec-
ton while young. They live on insects,
bugs and plenty of corn, and corn never
ought to be sold off the farm in Georgia
| until after it has been fed to pigs and
turkeys. worth 6 and ~ cents q pound,
| at least, dressed. The cotton bales cost
IS bale to pick and cover per bale after
it is made, leaving net balance Of $40.
The farmer fanoies that the baggins
pays for itself. but there is a tare Of 81
pounds deducted on all cotton exported
deducted from the price of every bale
OF cotton, whether consumed at home
or in Europe.
A half million turkeys raised by the
farmers wives will be labor of pleas.
ure, leaving three-f ifths for home con.
sumption and two fifths for the market.
Dressed turkeys can be sold in the
cities at from 10 to 10 cents per pound
through the winter and early spring
months, and paid for on delivery, by
using systematic business methods. Ev.
cry city. town and village will furnish
a market for them
The freight on such products would
be from 10 to Is cents per 100 pounds
from any county to any city in Georgia.
Why should Georgia depend upon
Tennessee for her dairy and poultry
products, and ON the west for nearly all
OF her mutton. beef and pork supplies!
The only answer to this is that the cot.
ton producers of Georgia have been ex.
pending their entire energies on cotton
for two years past. much to their own
sorrow, and have had no energies to ex.
pend on any other product of the soil.
A half million bushels of sweet potatoes
can be disposed of in the same way at a
stipulated price before shipment, and
spot cash on delivery, and millions more
for home consumption, as well as to fat.
ten pork and poultry. They retail today
at 81 bushel in Atlanta, and in almost
every other large city in the state, and
never sell below so cents, and farmers
would not be compelled to market them
at the lowest price, as they always are
with cotton.
It has been the custom for many years
for farmers wives to have a ..cotton
patch" to supply them with Christmas
cash for family necessities or luxuries,
but alas, like the large body of labor
who "work on shares. nothing or next
to nothing has been left of their
patches" after the picking and bag.
ging were paid for. This year let her
section patch" be substituted with
flock of 100 turkeys. She will find
pleasure in raising them and seeing
them grow up. At an average weight
Of 10 pounds dressed they will net in
spot cash over 500, equal to four bales
OF middling cotton at cents on the
plantation. besides helping in a small
way to reduce the volume of Georgia
cotton that has well nigh ruined Geor-
gia the past two years. By the end Of
this month an approximate estimate of
the coming crop will be arrived at and
by the last of May the statisticians will
be able to give the exact acreage in cot
ton planted. the amount of fertilizers
NCO0S oA0 VA eAOSO eWO tbS OttDAS HAvO
their estimate Of the coming crop In
bales for 1899 and 1900; the, Neils
among them giving large margin to
their guess work, in the interest of the
cotton manufacturers of the world, and
by this means robbing the cotton pro-
ducers of the south, as they have done
in the crop of 1899. Already they are
boasting and assuming THAT the small
grain crops destroyed by the severe win.
ter in Arkansas, west of the Mississippi,
as we'll as in Georgia and states east,
will now undoubtedly be planted or re.
planted in cotton. If these predictions
come true in Georgia or Arkansas it
will be hailed as sure omen for another
large AGENT cotton crop. and irretrieva.,
BILE ruin to the cotton producers. But
we have an abiding faith in the cotton
producers of Georgia and we shall con.
tinue to cherish it for one or two months
longer. Georgia farmers learn nothing
from ,1iTuaf;c IL, or o%.ou 1;6n ,chool