Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1909-10-20
FARM VALUES IN NEW YORK
AND GEORGIA.

Sect. of Agriculture Wilson has
been travelling through New York
State, one of the most beautiful farm
ing sections of the country, where ag-
rieulture, one would think, would
flourish, with so many large markets
consuming the outputs of the soil,
and such great opportunities for d.
yersification of crops and the scien-
tific advancement of the cultivators of
the land
Yet Sect. Wilson found reason to
complain. More farmers are needed
in New York state, he declared, too
many farmers are leaving it for the
cities or for the West THE soil is
good and the people working the
farms are good" he declared, but
there are not enough of these people
on the farms And then he added this
significant sentence:
why should farmers go West and
buy farms at $125 an acre when they
can get good land in New York state
for So n acre. Why should they
exchange the climate of the Empire
state for that of some of the states
where it rains most of the winter?"
The North must be going to the bad
in an agricultural way if lands in New
York state that are capable of produce
ing 200 to 400 bushels of potatoes an
acre, as the Secretary claims. are SELL
ing at S. an acre, while in the West
farm lands command 800 to $3.50 an
acre. Farm values North as a gen.
eral rule appear to be standing still or
retrograding. In the West they have,
in many sections, become SO high that
further increases are doubtful. One
must come South, it would seem, to
see land values steadily climbing.
There are no SIS an acre lands capable
of producing 200 to 400 bushels of
potatoes an acre for sale in South
west Georgia, for instance Even in
remote sections hereabouts, away
from public roads and railway facil-
tiles, $40 is cheap far anything like a
good farm, and, as many recent sales
have confirmed, $25 to $40 is consid-
cred none too high for good farming
lands located convenient 10 markets
and with good roads. !?
New York state has magnificent
transportation facilities, it has good
highways, it has a vast number of
cities and towns, it has superb educa-
tional facilities, it has everything that,
one would think, would tend to make
country life pleasant and profitable.
And yet here is the Secretary of Agri-
culture telling us that lands can be
had there at S. an acre that are good
for large crops when properly culti-
waited. He bemoans the trend of the
farmers to the West. That trend away
from New York state probably can
not be stopped. But the Secretary
might do the farmers a good turn If
he would direct their attention to the
South, and to Georgia in particular. If
they are set on leaving New York
state, if they are determined to make
a change, he would be only doing his
duty to them and to the country if he
directed their faces Southwark, to the
land of genuine promise. where the
opportunities in agriculture vastly ex-
coed those offered either North or
West, where there is no rain all win
ter or summer, where progress is
seen on every side and the new conner
will be welcomed and become sharer
in the greater prosperity in which he
will become a factor.
We have never yet seen anything
from the pen or voice of the Secretary
of Agriculture that advised the farm
ers to consider the South when they
are contemplating a change of resi-
dence. Yet he must know that this |
would be good advice TO them
If the South ever gets a capable
man in the portfolio of Agriculture at
Washington he can do effective work