Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1900-10-10
TO MAKE THE SOUTH RICH.

TO MAKE THE SOUTH RICH.
Southern farmers should not permit
the present price of cotton to divert
their minds from the necessity of di-
versifying their crops. It is IN dlversi
tication that their hope of independ-
ence and wealth lies. Cotton prices
will not always remain high. Seasons
of depression will come again, when
those farmers who continue to make
cotton their sole crop will have abund-
ant occasion to regret their lack of fore
sight.
There is no better time than the pres
ent to make arrangements for devoting
acreage and attention to several farm
products next year.
The extra money that will come from
the cotton this season will place the
average farmer i'll a position to take up
other lines of production without
having to burden himself for the pur-
pose of so doing. New lands can be
opened up for tobacco; additions can
be made to the herds of cattle; more
fruit trees can be planted; the focks
about the barnyards can be increased;
the acreages for wheat and oats can be
extended. In short, there are dozens
of ways IN which the farmers of the
South can become "expansionists" at
home, wholly "within the party and
the constitution, and they ought to do
it for their own good.
During the past two or three years
diversified farming has made fairly
good progress in the South.
In this state the wheat crop is now
quite important, but it is not nearly so
large as it should be. A chemists re-
port, which we published the other
day, showed that as fine wheat can be
raised in Georgia as in any other state
of the Union. A certain class of wrap
per tobacco, raised in South Georgia
and Florida, recently took the first
prize at the Paris Exposition, showing
what can be done in that line. The
fruits of Georgia and Florida are re-
cognized as beng among the best in
the world. Indeed, it would probably
be impossible to mention any agricul-
turaI product of the temperate zone
that cannot be successfully produced in
the South.
While start has been made in the
direction of diversifying crops, it is as
yet only start. We are still buying
corn, lard, meat and flour from the
West, and potatoes, turnips, butter,
cheese, canned goods and many other
articles of food from the North. We
do not even produce all of the chickens
and eggs we eat, but get them in large
quantities from non-cotton states, and
pay good prices for them. We send
literally millions of dollars per year
away from home for food that might
better than not be produced at home.
The start that has been made in
home production of food crops and
provisions ought to be encouraged by
every means possible. And those who
have made the start ought to talk it
up to their neighbors who have not,
and try to get them to join the pro
cession. Agitation will get the all
cotton farmers interested, and once
they have got into the way of planting
corn, sugar cane, wheat, oats, etc., in
addition to cotton, they will wonder
why they stood in their own light so
long.
And, as was said above, there is no
time better than the present, when
cotton prices are good, to make arrange
ments for other crops. Diversified
farming not only means independence
for the intelligent and industrious
farmers, but it means that when the
system becomes anything like general
in the South good prices for cotton
the money crop-wilI be practically as
sured. Savannah News.
The Birmingham Age Herald says
that the State of Georgia and Atlanta
held an election last Wednesday.