The Marietta journal. (Marietta, Ga.) 1918-1944, 1920-10-01
A GEoRGIAN's VIEW
OF CALIFORNIA
Continued from front page)


over ten or twelve pounds and they
taste flat. happened to be talking
one day with prominent produce
man and mentioned something about
the delicious Georgia cane syrup.
mat man said he had tried every
year to get supply of Georgia cane
syrup, saying that he had never in
all his life eaten any syrup to COM
pare with it. I have his order for
supply in my pocket right now.
was talking with party of Cali
fornia business men one day and
someone said something about pota-
toes. l suggested that what he
meant by potatoes was Irish pota-
toes. He replied, ooh, no, meant
sweet potatoes, but l am frank to
ell you that we cannot raise any,
hing as delicious as your famous
Georgia yam. The only ones we get
out here are those that come canned
and while they are better than ours,
happen to know they are not as
good as they are before thew are
canned"
That's the way those who know
Georgia out here look upon our pro-
ducts. have had California fruit
men tell me that there is no peach
IS good as the Georgia peach. They
all frankly admit that Georgia is
The pecan section and that this one
crop alone wiuld make Georgia
world-famous if we would onlv 90
after it like they are going after
development out here. l was talk
ng with one of the California live
wires day or so ago, and when |
told him that Georgia apples had tax
en- five international premiums he
couldn't believe it. He frankly said
ne did not know we could grow ap-
Piles IN our section of the country.
truth is, the great majority of peo-
ole out here, those who have only
general knowledge of the South,
think that Georgia is a corn and cot
ton state and that we raise nothing
else. One man met who is a stock
man, said he was in Georgia about
twenty years ago and he remember
ed Georgia as state that made cot
ton almost exclusively and bought
ner meat and bread in the middle
west. In fact, he started out to give
me some advice and advised that |
go back to Georgia and tell the Geor-
gla people to go to making their own
meat and bread. You should have
been how surprised he was when
told him we were already doing that.
They told me of the wonderful
Sacramento Valley out here, and
crops what it will produce. They
were very much surprised when | told
them that in Georgia we had the larg-
est tobacco plantation in the country,
$4,000 acres with $500 employees.
They have been boasting to me ever
since came out here that Califor-
MAS rice crop last season amounted
20 $72,00O,000. 1t may interest you
Georgia people to know that the by
products alone from one Georgia cot
ton crop brought more than $72,0OO,-
600. Remember, by-products only.
They tell you only of their sue
cesses out here. That is why their
descriptions are so glowing. / have
gotten some of the less romantic side
of California however. l have talked
with hard-headed bankers-men who
are not accustomed to romancing-
and their information has always
been that there is "seemy" side
that there are failures as we'll as sue
cesses. One real estate man was
Boosting to me of how friend of his
had sold his crop of grapes this year
for $500 an acre, and the buyer is
to do the picking. That sounds fine,
but that land is worth 81 900 an acre.
Considering the investment, the cost
to produce-and don't forget it GER
tainly costs something to look after
grape vineyard-together with now
and then a failure, do you think that
is such large yield? l told him of
one R.abun county farmer who sold
81 400 worth of celery from one acre
in 1913. He was surprised of course
because they didn't think we could
raise celery in Georgia. Most Geor-
gia people don't know it either, but
you can if you prepare for it like they
do out here and in Florida. One
Dougherty county farmer has pro-
duced as high at 756 bushels of sweet
potatoes to the acre, and you know
what they are now worth. A Lown-
des county man produced a water