Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-11-10
Se1nra's Valuable Light on
Georgia 5 Urgent Problem,
N Seeking solution for the business and

VIEW SJN > FSC"S d SS'~'~
IN Seeking solution for the business and
agricultural problems which press so In
sistently upon Georgia today, we can
not do better than to study the experience
of communities that already have grappled
these difficulties and have brought them to
q prosperous issue. Particularly interesting
and helpful for this purpose IS the history
of how Dallas county, Alabama, found
q substitute money-maker for cotton anu
built up new farm industry Whlch LOT
profitab1eness far surpasses anything known
under the old narrow amp precar1ous regime.
It was some six years ago that the busl-
ness leaders of Selma, Dallas countys
thrifty capital, acting through their chamber
of commerce; cast about for means to meet
an emergency not unlike that Wnlch now
spernlexes Georgia. The ravages of the Doll
weeyil made it imperative that farm products
other than cotton be mustered into the eco
nomic breach and that adequate markets
therefor be esta blished. Because cattle
raising had toehold in the community we
decided on dairying," says Mr.. Morgan Rich
ards the chambers widely informed and en-
terprising secretary. Two thousand dollars
of local capital was secured Tor investment
in creamery, upon the assurance that
fairly regular supply of milk from sixteen
hundred cows scattered throughout the cour-
ty would be forthcoming. The story, as con-
tinued by Mr. Richards in his interesting in
terview with Ralph Smith, runs thus: "A
three hundred gallon churn,t with sucn otner
equipment as was required for sour-cfeam
nlant was installed. the purpose being TO
make butter We soon found, however, thar
the product of the sixteen hundred COWS
could not begin to meet the requirements ol
even this small creamery. We found, toe
that we had no real cows in the county; .they
we've runts and scrubs, giving comparatively
little milk" more courage-try1ng sltua-
tion for beginners could not well be mag
med, But having a will, the Selma leaders
found a way.
After due investigation, supplemented by
deal of hard thinking, they worked ou1 d
j plan by which the creamery imported well
bred cattle and placed them with interested
farmers. who gave as security their lndlVlo-
ual notes, reinforced by mortgages on tEe
cattle purchased and on individual catCle III
their possession. Touching tnlsI arrange
ment Mr. Richards says:
The purchasers entered into an agree
ment with the creamery TO deuuct
certain percentage from their cream
checks, payable semi-monthly, TINS oe
duction to be applied to the curtailmen:
of the note With the Endorsement or
the creamery the local banks discounted
the notes, and experience proved that
the cream check deductions paid Tor the
cow or bull in eight months. IL IS
gratifying to remark in this connecEon'
now that the farmers OF Dallas county
are no longer importing well bred cattle
They are raising them in the county,
and have them for sale. The banks are
no longer discounting cattle paper, pc
cause there is no longer any such paper
offered for discount.
TT is the testimony of Mr.. H. G. ArmsE: ong,
president of the City National Bank or BEL
ma. which at one time had as much as my
thousand dollars in dairy cattle leans thae
MT nenny was lost on these TRANSACTIONS,
hnt that in thus aiding the new industry the
banks permanently enriched their own ana
the communitys resources.
Once fairly launched, the dairylng enter
nrise moved vigorously forward III ~ ID
there were twelve thousand COWS IN Dallas
county and their annual production OF n'iA
amounted to one million gallons; today there
are fifteen thousand cows, and their produc-
ton amounts to seven million gallons As
Ralph Smith succinctly sums 1t: by goou
breeding and proper care the productloE ol
Mill has been increased seven hundred per
cent in six years, while the number or cat
tie has been increased only twenty-five pei
cent" Not 1.-THE of this bountltul SUCCESS
would have been possible had reliance been
placed in inferior cattle, or had the 1arine i =
eimported their feedstucs, instead or rals ng
them at home; indeed, it seems established
beyond question that profitable da1rylns on
purchased provender is virtually lmposslple
ITO what extent crops other than cotIoi
Tins have been encouraged in the Selma
region appears in the fact that in the veal
1920 Dallas county produced corn valued a.
81 215 600 600. hay valued at $640,oOO. oat'
1925. 1000, cow peas $20S,O00 velvet beam
$13S,oOO, peanuts $4,000. and soy bean n
$4,000; besides $4,000 or Irish potatoes @da
$2S6,OOo of sweet potatoes. $239,OoO o
sorghum syrup, and $4,000 OF cane syrup ~
These crops have an aggregate value or 49,
$1,000 as against $1,745,OOO for cotton ant
cotton seed. To appreciate the ultimate an'
real value of the corn and forage crops Ups
however we must look further, for n tn
main they were sold, not as grain or nay
but in the far more probable folm of milk
butter cheese bacon aam and eggs TIL
county's seven, million gallons of milk il
1920 represented $2,45O,00, or almost three
quarters of million more than The receipt
from a crop of nineteen thousand bales
cotton, the seed included. me cattle. nuh,
herring nineteen thousand six hundred nead
were valued in the agricultural census a
s535,OOO. Add $4,000 for eggs. $1,000
for poultry $975,OO for hogs. $4,000 TO
mules, ana there is a total of $4.270,OO0 TO