Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-04-13
Il Notable Enterprise.

wa way Of comment on the recent estab
* lishment of a farmers cooperative
- grain elevator at Dublin, the State
Bureau of Markets says in its current week
Nv bulletin: I'VE feel this to be epochal
event in the progress of agriculture IN Geor-
gia Not only is this the first cooperative
elevator to operate in Georgia, but we be-
Iieve is the first in the South. Every apph-
ance of modern machinery and efficiency
has been installed. This will enable the Or
ganizaton to operate at a minimum OF eX-
pense Therefore, the cost or charges against
farm products passing through this plant
will be reduced to the lowest possible figure,
and the profits accruing to the organization
will, of course, go back to the farmer share
holders"
The Bureaus estimate of the Importance
of this enterprise is we'll warranted.
"Epochal," indeed, is an institution that
goes so far to facilitate the profitable mar
keting Of food crops and thereby to encour-
age their production. If Investigation of
food crops is the most constructive tendency
in our agriculture, then assuredly form of
service that enables the farmer to handle
harvests other than cotton conveniently and
to dispose Of them advantageously is of cap
ital value to the Commonwealth. 1t was
lack of just such service that kept Georgia
and the South fettered so long to the one
crop system of farming, with all it's hazards
and inefficiencies. Planters continued year
after year and decade after decade devotIng
their acreage and labor almost exclusively
to cotton, this depicting soils resources and
making tremendous bills for purchases of
foodstuffs from distant regions. Why? Not
because cotton intrinsically more prof
liable than grain, live stock and staple vege-
tables, but because it was the only crop for
which there were anything like adequate
market facilities, the only crop which could
be readily converted into cash.
~
changed new agricultural ideas could make
no substantial progress. Convinced though
they were that diversification was right in
theory, farmers naturally would not venture
to practice it when they knew there was no
accessible market for it's products. 1t will
be recalled that some years ago before inn
provements in this matter had fairly begun,
Georgia went in for unusually large
planting of sweet potatoes. Weather con.
d1tions being favorable, the crop was most
bountiful, and those who had urged the ex-
pertinent were in high feather. But when
it came to disposing of these hundreds of
thousands of bushels of sweet potatoes the
growers found themselves in hopeless pre-
d1cament. There were no esta blishod chan
nels of sale, no communications with CEN
ters or demand, no storage accommodations
to take care of the enormous surplus after
domestic and local needs had been supplied
no facilities for putting the producers. who
were eager to sell, into connection with the
consumers, who were equally eager to buy.
inevitably, the larger part of the crop went
completely to waste; and the disappointed
planters, reckoning their heavy losses in
tlme' labor and money, resolved to stick
closer than ever to cotton. Thus was great
drive for diversification turned into great
oeIeat, simply because due provision was
not made for storing and marketing
1t IS happily evident, on the other hand
tnat wherever this pivotal need has been pro-
vlded for food production has found rich
reward and encouragement. Witness the
expansion Of animal husbandry, following the
introduction of packing plants, and the high
protltableness of sweet potato production
nave been set up. Similarly effective has
Deen the steadily multiplying service of the
peanut and velvet bean mills canning fac
torres and sundry other establishments which
a1tord convenient and dependable market FOR
1000 crops. AS the latest advance in this
important field the farmers co-operative
elevator at Dublin is peculiarly rich in prom
Use Tor Georgfa's agricultural development
ana for the great range of related interects