Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1917-04-17
(From Atlanta Constitution

ers in all varieties of foodstuffs are
daily sounding the warning cry against
looming famine in the necessarles Oh
| life-close at hand, unless something
is done to relieve the situation.
The nation-the entire world, in fact
is alive to the situation and to the
remedy.
Americas chief fears are centered
in the south-the greatest proportion
ate importer of food products, with the
least home production of them, of any
section of the United States, excepting
the practically exclusively manufac-
turing states of the northeast.
Atlanta grocers are paying for space
in the newspapers in order to exhort
the public to economic, to conserve
the available supply of foods, and TO
appeal to all who can to enroll I'M
mediately in the producing class.
Their advice is good; their reason
| ing sound. The situation is menaclng'
and unless it is remedied, and without
DAYS loss of time, condition bord-
ering upon serious shotage is newt
able.
Georgia long ago formed the habit OF
looking elsewhere for its food supply.
We are doing it today.
And yet upon any small piece OF
ground in Georgia enough foodstuffs
can be produced to feed family dur
ing the growing and fruiting seasons,
fifth enough surplus for canning, II
canned. to feed an average family the
rest of the year.
Nature has so endowed this section
that it has two garden seasons; two
distinct kitchen gardens can be
grown in one year.
And there is not garden-not even
the smallest kitchen garden-ln Whch
the north and the west have been grow
ing food permitted to rot on the
ground every year simply because OF
lack of facilities for preserving it.
This is not only an economic waste,
but it is an economical crime!
And in the midst of this profigate
wasteage, the average consumer IN
time of stress sits back and howls
about "foodstuffs corners" "specula-
tion," "exorbitant profits" etc.
The fault is largely our own! We
have been asleep in this section while
tn north and the west have been grow
ing rich in selling us food!
This state alone-with its wonderful
combination of climate and soil, could
grow enough foodstuffs to feed all
Georgia and every other state south
of the Ohio river!
Still we rail against the economic
conditions that cause us to buy our
canned goods from the west and the
north, when we can put them up
cheaper, faster and of better quality
right here on our own idle acreage!
The solution of the Georgia food
stuffs problem is to be found in the
community cannery-the institution
which has enabled the west and the
north to supply us with our canned
vegetables of all kinds, and our canned
fruits
There these community canneries are
as numerous and as common as are the
cotton gins in Georgia. Almost every
community center has it's cannery-
financed by the local bankers and
merchants with the farmers of the Vi
entity as stockholders.
They encourage and stimulate pro-
duction of fruits and vegetables, afford
ing a sure and profitable market
throughout the growing season for
every pound of produce the farmers
can raise, and because of them not a
mound Of foodstuffs is allowed to waste
on the farm.
It is an economic crime for any town
in Georgia, having a population or, say,
from 1000 upward, to be without its
community cannery!
Had we such institutions scattered
throughout the state, as they are in the
northern and Western states, every
pound of produce our farm lands are
capable of producing could be con-
tracted for and sold six months before
The seed are put into the. grounds is
the case in the north and the west.
AS it is now. we are buying canned
peaches, tomatoes, peas, beans, corn
all manner of fruits and vegetables,
that can be advantageously grown in
Georgia-produced and canned in Cal
Ifornia, Oregon, Washington, Iowa, In
diana, New York, etc, and shipped to
ups from distance of from 900 to
5000 miles!
Tool, at the label on the next few