Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-03-16
The South as a Grain Grower.

Everyone knows that in the last few years there
has been a remarkable increase in the Souths pro-
ducton of foodstuns a fact of far-reaching import
to the entire country we'll this region 1t is
not until complete and official records studied
however that grasps the broad significance of
what has happened in a group of States whose
farmers for the most part dependent on cotton
until a year or so ago. a..
From statistics of the federal Department of
Agriculture the Manufacturers Record has COM
piled uncommonly interesting table of figures
showing the average yield of corn and of wheat in
this country for five ten-year periods, beginning
with 1S66-1S75 and ending with 1906-1915. For
the country as a whole there has been consider
able increase in the average yield of from 1856
1916. But in the South Atlantic States there has
been increase of four and hve-tenths bushels
per acre. Wheat production has increased for
the country as a whole, from average of 119
bushels per acre for the decade 1866 to. an
average of 10 bushels per fol the decade
ending with 1915, gain of 81 bushels per
In the South Atlantic States, wheat production
has increased during the same period from S.4 to
1S bushels per acre, a gain of 4.6 bushels. Fur
thermore, the Manufacturers Record observes:
THE South Atlantic and South Central
States have not only made a larger average
gain in wheat production per than the
entire country but very much larger aver
age gain than the North Central Western
States, which are supposed to be the very
of the wheat production sections of
the country with the exception of the Pacific
Coast. In the South the average price per
bushel for wheat and corn is very much
larger than the average in the country at
large. Thus the Southern farmer, even with
his somewhat smaller yield, gets much
larger gross value per for his product
than the Western farmer"
Georgia's average yield of corn was II 3 bush
els an acre for the decade I9O6-15. Within IT,
same fifty years Georgia's average yield of wheat
increased from SO to 1915 bushels an acre. 1t
should be noted that in this State as in the
country as "a whole, the increase in the yield of
corn and wheat has come within the past twenty
years. and mostly within the past ten years. This
is ascribabe, OF course, to the extension of agri
cultural education. The State College of Agricul-
ture and its allied agencies have increased Geor-
gias productivity and wealth by hundreds of mil
lions of dollars.
Just how true this is appears in comparing
the records of the so-called demonstration areas
which are cultivated under the direction or coun-
sci of a farm demonstration agent, and the record
of the State at large Thus Georgia ten-year aver
age yield of corn from 1910 to 1916 was Ia bush
els an acre; the average yield of the demonstra-
ton areas for the year 1915 was something over
thirty bushels That the demonstration
work exerts broadly helpful influence far beyond
the immediate territory in which it is conducted
is evidenced by the fact that the yield of the
State as whole increased from an average of
fourteen bushels for ten-year period to an aver
age of Ia bushels acre in 1915 and Is bushels
in 1916, No county afford to be without the
service of expert farm demonstrator
There could be brighter omen of Southern
prosperity than the increase in the grain acreage
and grain hsrvests of this region. These staples
are laying the foundation of agriculture more
diversified more bountful. more enrichng than
the South any other part of America has
known.