Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-03-18


cotton last year, which he sold in
Atlanta two weeks ago for $1,000,
including the seed.
The cotton brought 80 cents a
pound and the seed, SIS a bushel.
The land Is a part of the red hills
in that section. Two hundred acres,
an entire landlot, could have been
secured twenty years ago in ex-
change for a COW, the sort of scrub
COW that was to be found then in
Georgia.
While the land was being cleared,
a young fellow who was helping
with the work, stopped swinging his
ak and said to Mr.. Hunter
"Whatcha goin' to do with this
land? My daddy owned it once. Sold
it for 25 cents an acre"
Last year it brought a return of
$3.50 an acre. This is because 1t was
planted in long staple cotton, though
until now it had been thought that
long staple cotton would not grow
in north Georgia.
In addition to thriving on redGest
of red clay in Habersham county and
producing a staple that sold at 81
cents a pound, this cotton bloomed
earlier than Early King, opened
earlier, and the last picking was
completed sooner.
This protects it against the boil
Weevil because it natures before the
weevil has a chance to attack it;
and in Mr.. Hunters opinion makes it
a variety of cotton that north Geor-
gia farmers can grow successfully in
spite of the boil weevil invasion
which is expected to reach the north
ern half of the state this year.
The cotton originated in Miss
sippi, where it was recommended by
the government and by the state as
a boil weevil cotton. Seed was Sc
cured for Mr.. Hunter four years ago
by the state board Of entomology,
and since then has been bred and de-
veloped by him under the dir elton
of state experts.
Until he came to Georgia fourteen
years ago, Mr.. Hunter had never
seen a stalk of cotton. For twelve
years he had worked for Ch.ca.-o
newspapers, then he went to New
York as advertising manager of the
Lackawanna railroad; from that he
branched out into ether advertising,
and while not the originator, he is
the man who made Sunny Jim" an
advertising asset. Largely through
him Sunny Jim" became known to
every man, woman and child in the
nation.
On a hunting trip Mr.. Hunter dis
covered northeast Georgia, investi-
gated the peach industry and became
convinced Of it's possibilities; then
being tired of the slavery Of city
life and work at a desk, he came to
Georgia to make his home. He clear
ed several hundred acres of virgin
land, planted it in peach trees, and
proved his conclusion that peach
growing in Georgia is a money-mak
ing business.
He was so busy over his orchards
that he lived at Cornelia three years
without coming to Atlanta. His
first visit here was to attend meet
ing at which the Georgia Fruit Ex-
change was organized. Three years
after the organization of the ex-
change he was elected president, and
has been reelected each year since
then.
But peach growing has been only
one Of his efforts. He became inter
ested in cotton, and the $11, 900 crop
pIOuuCSu ldSL year Oh Ill11 ~ dC1CS VI
North Georgia land is one Of the re-
suits.
In an interview for The Journal
he gives the history of his success
full attempt to grow long staple cot
ton in north Georgia. j.
IT got interested in cotton four
Or five years ago." he said. perhaps
you remember the year after the boil
weevil struck Georgia and cleaned up
the southeastern corner Of the state.
Meetings were being held at county
seats to discuss ways by which the
situation could be met. Between
trains at Thomasville I went to one
of these meetings. 1 heard the farm
ers told that they must not grow
more than eight Or ten acres of cot
ton to the pillow, and that they must
grow other crops on the remaining
fifteen or twenty acres. Right after
that 1 went on a tour of meetings
held in nearly every county in the
cotton belt.
Naturally learned something
about cotton. You can't listen to ex-
perts talk twice day without alb
sorbing something. One thing I be-
cotton was thing of the past, and
about that time 1 heard about a va
riety in Mississippi and another in
Virginia. 1 sent for both of them
and planted ten acres of each. One
proved worthless, but the Mississippi
variety grew the finest looking field
you ever saw. My wife could walk
out of sight in it. Most of the plants
had around 100 bolls, and YOU
couldn't cover any one of them with
the biggest cotton hamper YOU ever
saw. Furthermore, it was white with
blosslms in the middle of September,
one of the state experts and I fieur
ed 1t out on paper, and we found T
had raised two bales to the acre. IT,.
About bale of it had been nick
ed when frost that wasn't due for
at least forty days settled down one
night, and that was the end of the
cotton crop. 1t wasn't much com
tort that the weather man said 1t
was the earliest frost on record.
Il tried it again the next year, and
this time I left the cotton a little
closer in the row. In separate plot
I planted, side by side, seed from
100 special selections made the wear
before. When picking time came
these hundred rows were as differ
ent as 100 men. Some were early,
some were late, some were tall, some
were short, some had big bolls and
some had little ones. I selected
twenty of the best to try the next
year.
But while I had been raising cot
ton, the kaiser had been raising
well, something else. Before I was
ready to sell my cotton that year I'm
Gle Sam took over all the cotton mills
and said: Spin for me and spin
short cotton
$50, I didn't make a fortune that
year.
But I tried it again the next
year, and the crop matured early
enough for every lock of it to be
Ia, 10. LcLEc, EIn1