The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-30
A NEW INDUSTRY NEEDED.
CATTLE RAISING SUGGESTED FOR
SOCTH GEORGIA.

Some thing Needed to supply the
Place of Lumber and Naval stores.
Forests Vanishing Away and Rail-
roads Must Have Some other
source of Freight-A Butcher Tells
How Cattle Raising May BE Made
Profitable in Wiregrass Georgia.
Should BE Fed Up TO Proper COndi-
ton and Sold in the Spring When
Cattle Are Scarce.
other people besides the farmers are
bordering over the question of new indus
tries TO take the places of those which are
no longer profitable or the field for which
is being rapidly exhausted. None proba-
bly, are giving the subject more serious
attention than the traffic men of the rail-
roads. AS is well known the lumber and
naval stores industries have not only been
among tine largest sources of business for
Savannah and support to the surrounding
country for many years past, but these
industries have also furnished a very
large portion of their revenues TO several
of the railroads in this section. With the
exhaustion of the pine forests the lumber
men and naval stores operators are NOV
ing further TO the south and west, but the
railroads which have depended upon these
industries largely for their heavy traffic
cannot pull up stakes and seek other
fields. They must find other sources of
revenue or their prosperity will become
thing of the past.
This is really very serious question
with the railroads." said a well known
traffic man to a Morning News reporter
yesterday. las the timber is gradually
cut away the country will of course be cut
up into farms and the development of the
farming industry will finally prove advan-
tageous to the railroads 1t is while this
development is in progress that the rail-
roads must seek some other source of rev.
enue. The man who is engaged in run
ming saw mill or oper-
ating a turpentine dstillery
ships a large amount of heavy freight to
market and in return receives a large
amount in machinery and supplies. When
this same man or some one else in his
place becomes a small farmer the amount
of freight both shipped and received by
him decreases very much. The prosperi-
ty of the country is doubtless aided by the
agricultural development, but this is of
ITO particular duNdnldSe 10 the TdHTOdu
for the time being. This being the case
it is 10 the interest of the railroads to en-
courage the development of such indus
tries in their territories as will benefit
the people along the lines and at the
same time furnish a large amount of traf-
fic 10 the railroads while the country is
in process of transformation from almost
a wilderness to a settled agricultural
country.
Il have given the subject much thought
and it seems to me that the greatest OPP
portunity, both for the railroads and the
people of Southern Georgia is in the de-
Velopment of the cattle-raising industry.
Both cattle and sheep should be grown
for market, both for their hides and wool
and for supplying the home market, not
simply the country and towns, but the
cities as we'll with a constant supply of
fresh beef and mutton There Is no rea-
son why both these industries should not
be made profitable in this state and gen
orally engaged in on a large scale They
cannot be gone into haphazard, but the
same care an attention must be bestow-
ed in the raising of cattle as the farmer
does in producing his crops. The de-
mands of the market must be studied and
the way to meet that demand ascertained.
MANY people have held that cattle rails
ing cannot be profitably conducted in this
state in competition with the Western
beef concerns. A practical illustration of
the failacy of this theory is in evidence
in Atlanta. MIR. T. r. Sawtell of that city
has a large packing house in successful
operation there, where thousands of cat
tie and sheep and hogs are being slaughter
cd and marketed. The cattle used by Mr..
Sawteu are raised in Georgia and adjoin-
ing states, and the products of his packing
house compare faVOTably with that of the
Western packing houses. What Mr.. Saw
tell is doing in Atlanta can be done in
Savannah and elsewhere in Georgia. Think
what an immense saving it would be If
all the money which is paid for Western
beef were kept at home. IL the money
which Savannah alone pays the Western
packers were paid instead TO cattle raisers
of South Georgia how it would help to build
up the trade of our merchants"
A practical butcher and a very success
full one, 20 whom the subject of cattle rails
ing in South Georgia was mentioned, gave
some interesting information on the sub
ject, some of which will doubtless be news
to many people who have been raising cat
tie all their lives.
1T is true" said he, chat there is a
prejudice in Savannah against the native
beef. This is largely due to the condition
in which the cattle are delivered here for
the market. They have seldom been fed
up to the proper standard, and their con-
dition does not begin TO compare with
that of the Western beef In fact, the
cattle raised in this section of the state
get practically no feeding. They run wild
on the range until the grass is exhausted.
and then they are rushed to the market
and sold for what they will bring. Even
under present conditions raising cattle for
the market would prove paying business
in this section if the owners would only
show some judgment in feeding and mar
keting The rule is now to rush the cat
tie i'm here in the fall, when the grazing
is exhausted and the result is that the
market is soon gluted. 1t does not pay
10 Hold the cattle. and the owner sells
them for what he can get and often vows
that he viii never fool with cattle again
The reason it does not pay to hold the
cattle is this: These wiregrass cattle are
peculiar They have fed all their lives
on wiregrass, and they do not know how
To nat anvt hinp else Being entirelv errass-