Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-09-28

~ the TACT thaC Ineie 10 1" ii1eHA'
developed system for marketing cot
tom" while other crops, in this re-
zion. are inadequately or wholly unpro-
yided for in that respect, MT. Chauhcey
Smith writing in the current issue ot tne
Manufacturers Record, attributes larse
measure of the Souths inattenton 10 III
versifed Agriculture Recent years, ne
grants have witnessed gratifying I'M
proyement. but there is still lamentaDle
lack of facilities for disposing<of crops oth-
ar than cotton, such facilities as gram ele
yators, potato warehouses, cannerles' anu
amall stock yards. MANY such institutions
are doing a successful business, to the
great benefit of the communities they serve
and to the profit of their owners But
their number is insignificant compared
with the potential demand. The sooner they
are built. the sooner will the demand ex-
list as they will create their own business;
and bv the stimulus they will give to di-
versifed farming they will reduce the cost
of producing cotton, while providing the
opportunity to adopt the only system OF
Observation-Disclosures farming-that can
in the long run be profitable"
The conditions here observed cannot De
brought to the South's bordering too ire
nnasnt1y or too emphatically. In our sub
stantial and cheering advance toward
system for marketing food harvests, we are
likely to forget that the steps thus 1ar
taken are a bare beginning The SITUATION
Is incomparably better than ten years ago;
but it's improvement must be still more
rapid and extensive in the present decade,
IL tn South is to prosper as she should. We
need to bear constantly in mind that want
of convenient and dependable markets for
diversified crops is still costing the Cotton
Belt millions upon millions of money and
Is retarding the sections entire agricultural
progress and business expansion. IhlS is
not to minimize the Importance of what al
ready has been achieved. The beginning
was vast deal of inertia to overcome, and
long years of prejudice to break through.
To have proved that the impossible as
many once regarded it, can be done; that
the tyranny of cotton can be broken; that
other crops in abundance and variety can
be raised; and that facilities for convert
Ing them readily into cash values can be
provided, all in the cotton country-this is
cause indeed for qualification and encour-
agement,
But let us not imagine that we can rest
upon these beginnings and that mere mo-
mentum will carry US duly forward. No
such sluggardly attitude will do. The haz-
ards and ills Of the all-cotton system of
farming should be talked against and acted
against just as vigorously now as at the
outset of the Investigation campaign Like
wise the advantage and duty of providing
"home markets" for homegrown" prod
ucts should be urged with unslacking, ever
Increasing earnestness. This is not an old
vein of enterprise, nor a finished endeavor
1t is still in the pioneer stage, still de-
handing the keenest attention of business
and agricultural leadership. There is NO
more essential, more timely and imper-
ative work to which the Souths chambers
of commerce and kindred institutions can
apply themselves than that of interesting
capital in the matter of markets of this
nature. Grain elevators, canneries, the po-
tato curing plants, and establishments fol-
utilizing the manifold products of herd
and flock-these and their like are mate
rial needs of the Southern country and
rich opportunities for the discriminating
investor