Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-12-28
'5lopment Of latent rescslls


scribed in recent Issue of the MsnSSo
Record in an article on the Georgia Landowners
Association This organization whose membership
is now approximately one thousand is composed
of landowners and farmers in the great coastal
plain section which is marked by its abundance
of cutOver yellow pine lands and its wealth of ma
tive grasses suitable for cattle and sheep Re-
calling the fact that until recently this area given
over for the most part to the lumber and turpen-
tine business. the Manufacturers Record says:
The departure of the sawmill and the tur-
pentine still are being followed by the intro
duction of better breeds of cattle and sheep
and also by the development of large and
growing hog industry. The progressive land
have organized for the purpose of
converting this vast empire of some 10000
600 acres of lands rich with native grasses,
into great ranches and farms, in order that
they may help the nation in this hour of crisis
to meet its demands for meat. In short, it
is their purpose to put these cut-over lands
at work raising cattle, sheep and hogs, and
to that end they organized to drive the
cattle tick from the State within another year,
that their markets may be free from
within as we'll as from without to the best
blood and to the best markets of the world.
An interesting feature of the charter of the
Georgia Landowners Association is a pro-
vision that it shall not be used for the pecu-
mary profit of any members, and it is, there
fore, not engaged in selling lands
Enterprises of this character and purpose
of national Importance. The day of the great
western cattle range is passing the soiI-tillng
homesteaders multiply. But the cOuntrys de-
mand for meat grows with rapidly increasing
population. In these circumstances, it is to the
vast stretches of the Souths idle lands that stu
dents of the problem look for ultimate solu-
Of
eXcellently suited to such needs. This State,
with an area as large as that of England and
Wales, has developed only thirty-two per cent
of its territory. Immense opportunities thus
await the energy and capital of who know
how to turn them to accOunt--opportunties in
every field of agricultural and animal husbandry
interests. Not only is there abundance of
cheap land the indigenous grasses of which af
ford nutritious pasturage, there is also climate
exceedingly favorable to livestock raising. The
cost of winter housing and feeding, heavy in
regions where winters are rigorous reduced
to minimum in Georgia and neighboring States.
1t is thus possible and easy to produce meat
animals more cheaply in the South than else
where. Indeed, authorities of the opinion
that this is the only part of the country,
cept perhaps certain portions of the far West,
where beef be produced at all cheaply.
Enterprises looking to the development of
these resources peculiarly important at
time when war needs demand the utmost effort
to increase and the nations food supply.
But their Importance will be less marked after
the return of peace For years the worlds meat
output has been decreasing, and it will be lower
than when the ends. The beliigerent
countries of Europe have drawn upon their re-
serves Of food animals almost to the point of
exhaustion and, moreover, have drained those of
neghboring neutrals. In the early part of the
Germany and Austria killed millions of head
of livestock to save grain and potatoes and other
vegetables. The farms of France have been
drained of food animals, as have all the re-
sources of that heroic country. Indeed, every
part of the world has seen the sources of meat
production decreasing under demands This
means that when peace is restored and the
hercuean tasks of reconstruction begin, there
will be such a demand for livestock as the world
never knew before Hence the incalculable value
of resources like those Astounding in Georgia:
and hence, too, the far-reachng importance of
development like those admirably undertaken
by the Georgia Landowners Association