Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-01-09
The Cheapest Food Bill.

By an inquiry among thousand rural fam
lilies IN various sections of the country. the Depart
ment of Agriculture has found approximately how
much the farmer spends for food supplies other
than those which he raises at home The average
varies widely, of course. with different
states In California it is si1ty-fve dollars and
seventy-three cents a year for each member of the
farm household; in North Dakota. it is forty-ive
dollars; in Iowa. thirty-four dollars and eighty
seven cents; in Wisconsin. thirty-two dollars and
sixy-six cents; in North Carolina, only fifteen dol
lars and eighty-fve cents In the report at hand,
the average for Georgia is not given; but for the
country as a whole it is thirty-nine dollars and
forty cents.
That is TO say, per capita of seyenty-hve cents
a week covers the food bill of the average farm
household. The Milwaukee Journal truly observes
that when life seems 20 reyove largely around the
question of getting enough food for daily needs:
The attractions of the farm, which permits
the feeding Of family of five at a cash outlay
Of less than two hundred dollars a year. are
doubIy aruring. The farmer is in truth. al
most independent Of outside sources of food
supply. although he buys more foods than he
is compelled to buy. Such an exhibit should
stimulate very definitely the desire for the
\ farm"
The law of averages is considered so de-
endabIe that the conclusions reached by the De-
artment of Agriculture must be accepted as ap-
fortunately true. But in region where cotton
as planted long to the exclusion OF food crops
seems almost incredible, at first glimpse that
Lsh- outlay OF less than forty dollars- person,
ear. could give farm family all it wants to eat
When reflects, however. on the wide-reaching
#ehanges which recently have come to pass in the
agricultural methods of the cotton States, the
forty-dollar average appears not only attainable
but easy to excel.
Some years ago investigator in the national
Department of Agriculture reported that the aver
age farm home in Georgia produced less than two
butter. only two-thirds of pint of milk day and
only one-third of hog and one-twelfth of a beef
year for each member of the family. In the same
report it stated that Georgia was spending
upwards of twenty-four million dollars year for
outside purchases of corn, wheat and oats. How
far we have progressed beyond that period of lean
food harvests is indicated by the fact that almost
half of the States total agricultural income for
the year 1916 derived from food crops and
food animals The grain output exceeded eighty
million dollars in value; sales of animal products
Amounted to more than thirry-seven millions; and
in hog production Georgia attained seventh place
its percentage of in that item being greater
than any other States
If this. constructive tendency continues as
doubtless it viii, Georgia will not only beat the
general average Of less than forty dollars wear
as the per capita cost Of food purchases for the
farm, but will also become in time a close rival NJ
North Cardinals wonderful record Of less than sly
teen dollars year