The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1921-10-05
GEORGIA FARMERS
Still CROPPING
Have Not Yet Solved The Boil Weevil
Problem.
REPORT OF MIR. C. r. SPROTT
. Farmers Still Desire to Raise Cotton
Hoping That Some Means Will
Be Devised to Control Boil
Weevil.
Manning, S. c., Sept. 10, 1921
Mr.. G. G. Fishburne, President,
S. G. Crushers' Association,
Columbia, S. c..

>. u. CruSherS' Association,
Columbia, S. G.
Dear SIR
In accordance with your request,
went to Cordele, Ga, last week and
spent three days Investigating the
peanut industry in Crisp, Tiff and, to
very limited extent, in Brooks coun-
ties. Of course, in the short time I
was there, it was not possible to make
a thorough investigation, but talked
to farmers, oil mill managers and su-
perintendents, bankers and other bust
ness men, travelling statesmen, county
demonstration agents and experiment
station workers; and I think l got
pretty fair idea Of the situation in
that territory.
Crisp county is typical cotton
county. 1t is only little more than
one-third the size Of Clarendon and
900 bales of cotton. Last year they
ginned $500 bales and will make about
5000 bales this year. The average
amount of cotton planted per plow
before the boil weevil came was
about twenty-five acres and even now,
I was told, the average farmer plants
twelve to fifteen acres of cotton per
pIow and about five acres of peanuts.
Until made this trip, ! was under
the impression that the farmers and
business men in that section of Geor-
gia had solved the problems brought
about by the boil wcevil and had de-
cided on a definite farming program
which they were putting through. This
is not the case. The farmers in that
section are just about as unsettled in
regard to their future farming opera
tions as the farmers in Eastern South
Carolina. They are planting about
five acres of peanuts to each plow,
but they are doing this because the
weevil has forced them to cut down
their cotton acreage and the peanut is
the best paying crop they have found
to take it's place What they are hop
ing for is that some method will be
devised by which they can control the
weevil and continue to plant cotton as
they did before the wecvil came. When
I was in Cordele, peanuts were selling
for $65.00 Il ton. Even at this price
they make more on peanuts than on
20 cents cotton with the present
yields, but large farmer, who plants
about 400 acres of cotton and $50
acres of peanuts, told me that he pre-
fcrred cotton, as it was so much less
trouble. He said, "when | tell one of
my hands to put on 16-inch scrape
and plow certain field two burrows
to the row, ne knows exactly what |
mean for him to do, but have to go
in the field and show him how to cul-
tivate my peanuts and when gathering
time comes, l have to stay in the
field all the time TO get the work done
properly"
Peanuts in that section are planted
without any lime or fertilizer what
ever and the yields are low. In Crisp
county the average is about ton to
three acres and in Tiff and Brooks
county about ton to two acres. Tiff
county has probably a better soil than
Crisp, and Brooks county farmers
plant largely the runners, which pro-
duce a good deal more than the
Spanish | was told Of individual far
mers VINO made eighty bushels Of
Spanish peanuts per acre and field
near Cordcle which made three
tourths of bale of cotton per acre in
1919, made s 'tv-fivc bushels, or prac-
1872, without any fertilizer of any
kin If the farmers in that section
ha,. fully made up their minds that
in the future peanuts would continue
to be one Of their chief money crops,
and give crop more attention, | am
satisfied that they could easily double
present yields. The impression / got
is that the main effort of the large
majority of farmers is directed to-
wards raising cotton and they are
still hoping, and, to some extent cx-
pectng, that some means will be de-
Vlsed by which they can continue to
raise cotton as they did in former
years. The bankers and other bust
ness men hold an entirely different
view. They believe that cotton rails
ING in that section is 1OOmod ond tbol
the peanut will eventually prove to
be the salvation Of the country. They
have tried, to some extent, tobacco,
sugar cane and possibly other crops
without success and Notwithstanding
the fact that peanuts dropped from
$4,000 a ton in 1920 to $4,000 a ton
in the spring Of 1921, the acreage this
year was not reduced more than ten
to fifteen per cent.
l tried to find out something i'm re-
gard to the cost Of raising a crop of
peanuts as compared with cotton, but
was unable to get any very reliable
information on this point. One man
told me that he considered cotton at
zoe pound and peanuts at $4,000 a
ton about on a par as to profit. An
other large farmer told me that he
would little rather raise cotton un-
der present conditions at zoe a pound
than peanuts at $4,000 ton. This
man, however, planted 100 acres of
peanuts last spring when cotton was
around 15c pound and peanuts were
$4,000 ton. The agronomist at the
Coastal Plain EXDcTimcnt Station ot