The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-05-14
Cullman County In
 Progressive Farming

0 made such strides in diversified agriculture or in the accumulation of wealth as Cullman.
 1 It has not been so many years ago that Cullman was one of the poor counties. In the seventies MT. Gull man brought colony of farmers from the fatherland and established them in the section now known as Cullman. The immigrants were in- dustrious and frugal and by intelli- gent application to the trucking in- dustry soon made the county famous.
 Cullman county has been going right ahead. Virtually everything is raised there, and the county is advancing today on larger scale than ever.
 The market situation is the prime factor in modern development. A survey of how Cullman county makes money in marketing its di- versified products has been prepared by T. Park Hay, Jr., of Birmingham, secretary of the committee on agri- culture, and L. c. Jennings of the Southern Bell Telephone company, and it is at once interesting and edu- cative. Here are some of the salient paragraphs:
 | This committee has attempted to 1 prove by it's survey that where the 1 market question has been solved the 1 production of food products can be | as remunerative-and Tn many in- 1 stances more so--than the growth of l cotton alone.
 To sustain this contention further | a survey was made of the market 1 ing methods of Cullman county, Ala 1 bama, where the secret of this coun- ] tvs achievements along this line was l discovered.
 l The statement was recently ad- l vanced in commercial circles in the 1 south that the southern farmer was 1 suffering from the lack of a sales 1 the sale of his crops. No statement 1 could be more reaching in de- ! scribing the conditions that appear in | exist
 1 Like any mining or manufacturing l concerns would do, Cullman county 1 has divided it's agricultural business
 into two partments-production and 1 sales
 The real influence at the head of
 the production department is County i Demonstration Agent D. Mercier. i through whose hands pass all sci
 entific advice and information re- gardmg modern agricultural produc-
 ton methods
 At the head of the sales depart
 ment is c. c. Whaley, sa:es manager
 of the Cullman County Farmers and Shippers association to whom nearly
 40 farmers entrust the responsibility
 for the sale of their entire output.
 Between $50 and 400 farmers in the county belong to this association. The initiation fee is only 50 cents, but it's obligations are strict and
 binding. No member is allowed to
 sell his output to anyone. any more
 than Henry Ford would allow an em-
 ploye of his plant 10 sell Ford cars
 on the side. The members must sell
 through Sales Manager Whaley. Conveniently located to the rail-
 road in the town or Cullman is the
 office and warehouse of the asso-
 citation. where grading, packing and
 loading is done unde. tne strict su-
 pervision of MT. Whaley.
 Crates and shipping containers of
 all kinds are purchased by the as-
 sociation and sold to the members.
 Packing and grading in the fields is l taught each member. but each pack
 age must pass a rigid inspection as to grade and quality before it is accepted
 After the grade is established and
 the car loaded, it has been said that
 the Thigh dollar determines it's des-
 tination. We have heard it often