The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-03-05
POSSIBILITIES OF THE SOIL
Mr.. sehoenhOf on What Georgia
Land May be Made TO Do.

Lana May be MADE 10 DO.
Among the speeches at the recent
dinner of the Georgia Society at the
Marlborough Hotel in New York. that
of Mr.. Jacob Schoenhof on Georgia's
Resources and Possibilities has spe-
cial interest to the people of this sec
ton of the state.
Mr.. Schoenhof is an authority on
economics and the tariff. He held
consular appointment during Cleve
lands first administration and is a
writer and statistician of some reputa-
ton. His speech refers largely to the
possibilities of South Georgia from an
agricultural standpoint.
Travelling from Savannah to Suwa-
nee Springs in 1892" he said. II could
not fail to become impressed with the
monotony of the eternal recurrence of
a thin growth of live oak on a white
sandy soil, covered with a very sparse
coat of grass. That country bearing
such forbidding aspect should not in
vite the cultivator cannot be surpris- 4
ing, when rich soils are abundant. The
census tells us that the average yield
per acre of Georgia is a low one in
almost all the staple products of the
soils. The average in corn for the state
| is twelve bushels and for the South
eastern part but ten bushels, while the
yield for the whole country, rich and
poor soils alike, is in the neighborhood
of twenty-five bushels. We are in
clined to ascribe. this shortening in
yield to the natural conditions here re-
ferred to. In the present state Of agri-
culture this plea may suffice. But
what can be done with this very soil,
If pressure should be felt by popula-
ton crowding on subsistence, was
proved to me by a farmer near Savan-
nah to whom l paid visit. Maj. @.
M. Ryals was kind enough to give me
information from his books. He had
120 acres under cultivation. This land,
from natures hand. as poor as the soil
characteristic of the region, yields
three crops. AS a first crop, he gener-
ally raises potatoes, averaging about
200 bushels to the acre. In favorable
years he raises more. But they are Of
ten injured by frost. and he frequent
ly has to pillow them over and substi-
tute some other crop. like cabbages.
OF this he obtains from $50 to 200 crates
per acre. This is followed by corn,
averaging to him some forty bushels,
following which he raises from two to
three tons of rye grass. OF course such
results are realized only by intensive
cultivation. He keeps on the farm thir-
ty-five head of working animals. He
spends fully $50 per acre for artificial
guano and $40 for farmyard manure,
in part obtained from the stables of
Savannah. He pays his help well, en-
ploying permanently thirty-five to for
ty hands, and from 200 to 300 in gath
ering time. He has sold as much as
$4,000 worth Of produce in one year
and makes from $4,000 to $4,000 clear.
The season was an especially dry one.
ION the way to the farm of Maj.
Ryals, / had been passing hundreds of
acres of crops whitening away,
but deep blowing, rich fertilizing and
thorough cultivation brought the crops
OF my friend safely through and yield
ed him the customary favorable re-
| suits.
In cotton have seen the same ex-
| amples of low yield and rich yield In
! almost adjacent fields. Five to six
acres of unfertilized land producing
but bale, while two cwts. of fertilizer
| produced a bale to two acres of the
same land. But land given 10 cwts
| of fertilizers yielded as much as III
| bales TO the acre. Land will do what
ever you make it. You can cheat your
| neighbor, but you cannot cheat the
| land 1t is grateful. 1t returns doz-
en-fold what you put in. How rich
| the return if You go about and apply
what science has put into your hand
| must inevitably give way to well be-
| ing, and wealth will take the place of
| poverty.
Il have been seen this principle no
where carried out more thoroughly
than in the channel islands. Here a
population of some $4,000 people on
sixty square miles of rocks in the
English channel covered with an in
different soil and with a climate not
a nv mo .
the south of England produces food
enough to maintain 1900 people to the
square mile and to export no less
than 100000 pounds of produce
year. The entire population lives in
abundance and comfort and well-be-
ing is the general condition. You can
more fully appreciate the Importance
OF this fact by the counter tatement
that the population of the state of
Georgia counts scarcely more than 20
to the acre. On the basis of cultiva-
ton such as is practised in the Chan
mel Islands, Georgia could feed the
entire population of the United States
and have some to spare. But this even
10 nothing compared to the produce
the kitchen gardeners of Paris are
able to obtain from an acre or two
| OF land. In my book The Economy of
| High Wages l gave the account of
trucker in the suburbs of Paris
whose sales from his plot 2A acres
amounted TO a little over $4,000. and
his net profits to over $1,000. Even in
| truck farming there are differences
such as resulting from good farming
and poor farming, as evidenced in the
case of Maj. Ryals and in that of
some of his neighbors.
THE census reports of 1890 on truck
farming made this Main
nave subjected them to an
analysis and will only give you a few
OF my hgures covering the New Eng
land States on the one hand and the
South Atlantic States on the other
hand.
The saleable value of an acre. after
deducting freight, in asparagus was
S216, against 1893; beets 5000, against
S95; cabbages, 1888, against $113; peas.
$3.50, against $57; watermelons. 500,
against 1872; potatoes, 500, against
$1O1; spinach, $175. against $40; toma-
toes, $500. against s94. Average. s175,
against $S2.
IL,