Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1913-05-02
PROVIDING OUR FOOD SUPPLY

lesson. Enough cattle to supply our
demand, if not enough to ship to Other
sections, should be the goal of South
ern farmers, instead of failing To
raise enough cattle to make unnece5-
sary the shipping of meat in to this
section from other states. AS the A.
lanta Journal points out editorially:
DIR. E. NJ. Neighbert, director of the
federal bureau of animal industry IN
Georgia and adjacent States, calls a.
tention to the fact that some thirty
thousand head OF cattle were recently
shipped from Florida to Oklahoma and
Kansas, where they will be fattened
and then re-sold to this section for
d. rec or four times their original cost
What a tremendous saving it would
be not only to individual consumers
but also to the entire economic inter
ests of the South, if these cattle were
fattened and marketed at home! The
difference would amount to millions of
dollars a year in our favor.
Before this can be done, however,
certain practical conditions must be
met; and one of them, as DR.. Neigh
bert indicates, is the eradication OF
the cattle tick. This parasite is the
one great foe to Georgia's progress in
the live stock and the dairying indus
try. Where it prevails, cattle cannot
thrive, cannot be made marketable as
beef or desirable for breeding pur
poses. The majority of Georgia coun-
ties are still guaranteed against the
country at large because they are in
Tested with the cattle tick. 1t is note
worthy, however, that those districts
V hich have duly co-operated with the
state and federal authorities have rid
themselves of this pest and have been
relieved of the quarantine. What they
have accomplished, every other county
can accomplish and thereby make
itself richer and more progressive
There is another essential to the
success of the cattle raising industry,
and that is the home production of hay
and forage. Georgia soil can produce
grasses as nutritious as any grown II
the West and can produce as cheaply.
Cattle breeding will not become profit,
able or inviting until We take advan-
tage of these resources and cease ship
ping supplies from distant sections nj
high prices.
1t is doubtful if there is any corner
of the Union or of the entire earth
which is naturally better suited 10
cattle raising than Georgia and tbs
neighboring states. This great indus
try can be conducted here at a min
imum of expense and a maXium of r.
suits. The equable climate makes the
problem of winter housing, which in
some sections is so serious, practically
negligible. The soil will yield an alb
undance and variety of the best cattle
food. AS regards market centers III
the East as we'll as the South, We arc
most advantageously situated III
deed, every natural circumstance
marks Georgia as one of the great
beef-producing sections of the coun-
try.
1t is cheering to note that these facts
are gradually impressing themselves
upon a larger and larger number OF
/ our people. Farmers generally are
realizing the value of raising enough
cattle and other live stock to meet
their own needs. In fact, there is d
constructive tendency to make the
farm self-sustaining in all its inter
est. The folly of devoting all the land
to cotton and of spending the proceeds
of the money crop for food necessar-
les is giving way to the wiser policy OF
producing these supplies at home
Some farmers, notably in nortn
u