The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1916-12-02
MARKET FOR S. {. LIVESTOCK
Florida Warehouse People Anxious
to Buy Local Output.
Charleston Post.

Charleston Post.
b.. f. Williamson, who is we'll re-
membered in Charleston because of
his interesting talk before the South
Carolina Agricultural Society at it's
meeting on the Isle of Palms last
July, in which he outlined the foun-
dalton and operation of the warehouse
at Gainesville, Fla, doing business
under the farm loan banking act, was
a recent visitor here, interviewing
persons with the intention of build
ing up locally a dependable supply
of livestock for the yard Which is
maintained in connection with the
Florida warehouse. The joint enter
prise has been in operation now for
three years., and has been an unquali-
fled success. The stimulus to stock
raising which the presence of a steady
market affords has resulted in an
immense increase in the number of
cattle, sheep, hogs and goats to be
found On the farms Of northern Flor
ida and southern Georgia, and Mr..
williamson is at present attempting to
acquaint more people with the fact
that near at hand they have an all
year market which will pay cash for
their stock, and can afford to handle
it at the time most profitable for the
farmer. He is touring five States talk
ing to the principal raisers Of live
stock. Already the growth Of the
business has been so pronounced that
the Armour interests have opened a
packing house at Gatr1eseffie; anu
Swift & Co. are soon to follow. The
company operating the warehouse in
Gainesville has opened a second
warehouse in Jacksonville.
Mr.. Williamson is a firm believer in
two things. the future of the South
east and the necessity of keeping the
money produced on the farm back
on the farm. He is daily teaching the
farmer how to do the second of these
two things, and himself helping to
make the first Of them, his dream of
prosperity for this section of the
country come true. It doesn't require
a prophet 10Y to see it coming.
With an overwhelming array of
facts, Mr.. Williamson proves that,
| Hn1tor For 6n1nr ctno1y ,a;c;-~ <o1y1.
less off the farm than any other pro-
duct. He says that the farmers ev-
erywhere are waking up to this fact,
and that wherever he goes through
the country he finds more stock be-
ing raised than ever before. He tells
of asking a farmer in this State re-
Gently if he had any hogs, and was
told that he had a few, and taken to
see them. There were more than 400
in the drove. The Southeast, says
Mr.. Williamson, is destined to be the
stock raising section of the country,
and if it's advantages had beer known
sooner, the large packing houses
would never have made large invest
mcnts in South America.
Mr.. Williamson shows that the
SOuth's cOmmittedness to a one-plant
crop. cotton, has ever been her bane,
but that SO long as there was no de-
pendablc market for other crops or
for livestock there was no escape for
the average farmer of small means.
But under the new banking law,
Warehouses which will loan money on
staple farm products have been es-
tablished n successfully operated,
and SO soon as one has shown that
the thing can be done, others have
been quick to follow. The farmers
have not been slow to learn, and ev-
erywhere that they LAY had their at
tention called to the plan and it's ben
efits they have soon taken advantage.
A new era has begun for the South,
declares Mr.. Williamson, and when
spoken by a man of so wide agricul-
tural experience as himself, and at a
time when a short cotton croD has
forced prices beyond any reached
since the Civil War, they are entitled
to credence.