The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1912-11-05
Wealth In Home Production.

From the Macon Telegraph.
Noting that even as far south in
Georgia as Worth county certain
farmers have for some years grown
sufficient wheat for their own use
and referring to the advice of the
Savannah Morning News to Other
farmers in South Georgia to follow
so good an example the Columbia IS
c. State says:
Probably it is true, as the News
asserts, that homegrown wheat
home-milled does yield a flour
which is sweeter and more whole
some than most of the commercial
brands; and perhaps it is advisable,
though of that we are not altogeth-
er certain, for farmers in this re-
gion to grow enough wheat to sup
ply their own households. But we
doubt the wisdom and eXpediency
of undertaking to grow wheat for
market in this part of the country,
especially on the scale set by the
Worth county eXper1menters, VINO
produce no cotton or tobacco at all,
combining their attention exclusively
to cereal crops, principally wheat.
This is not a wheat-growing section.
Soil and climate conditions i'll the
first place, are not those required
for profitable production of hard
wheat suitable for conversion into
merchantable -four. Besides-and
this is a factor almost as important
there does not exist in this por-
ton of the country that cash market
always available close at hand
which exists for crops that are bet
ter adapted than wheat to the soil
and climatic conditions prevailing
here"
Giving ear to such advice as this
is the chief cause of the troubles of
the Southern farmer as well as one
great cause of the high cost of living
in this section. The South collects
a billion dollars annually from cot
ton and promptly spends the greater
part of it on food supplies and manu-
features that in great part ought to
be produced at home. The Southern
farmer must grow cotton, of course,
but at the same time he should grow
many other things, including wheat
where possible. In addition he should
raise his cattle, sheep and hogs, bene-
fitting his locality as well as himself
by marketing the surplus above his
own needs. If he did this he could
bank the money he receives from his
cotton instead of spending it in a
fortnight. More work? Yes, but
he could afford to hire more help.
To advise Southern farmer not to
diversity his crops, not to raise his
own meat, not to grow wheat for his
own use with a surplus for the local
market merely because other sec
lions may be better adapted to wheat
growing on a large scale is to advise
him to squander his substance on
supplies which he could and should
produce for himself.
The Telegraph's carefully studied
editorial article on 'The Cost of
Food" published October 10, shows
from the census reports that the cost
of staple foods, cereals, meats, eggs,
butter, Irish potatoes, ETC., had in
creased 26 to 119 per cent in price
in twelve years and that the same
had increased "a to 1876 per cent
between June 10, I'LL, anu June 10:
1912. 1t was also shown that the
increased cost on a number of ar
ticles was much greater in some
Southern cities than in others, great
err in Charleston, for example, than in
Atlanta or Jacksonville. The only
reasonable explanation of this phe-
nomenon is that the wise course OF
diversified farming and stock-raiSing
is followed more in the neighborhood
of some Southern cities than Others
and that thus there is local modifi-
cation in the upward trend of prices
The same course followed through
out the South and throughout the
country would not only add immense
ly to the profits of the farmers, but
keep the cost of foods down whether