The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1921-08-23
Where the Average Farm Is AZ Acres
And the Owner Lives on the Farm.
From the Augusta Chronicle.

The county which produced the largest
number Of bales OF cotton in 1920 in the entire
state of South Carolina was Anderson-that
great section which stretches along the Sa-
Ivannah river for 40 miles or more and which
is 40 miles wide. A total OF 100000 bales was
made in this county, which, like Burke coun
Ity, Georgia is an empire within itself. This
same county of Anderson this year faces a
Icurtalment in yield of something like 10000
bales, it being predicted that only $4,000 bales
will be made and the boil weevil has hardly
made his presence felt. Decrease in the use
Of fertilizer, reduction in acreage and the
dry weather are the contributing causes to
the reduction in yield and it is, indeed, strange
to visit any community where the boil Weevl
is not on a rampage and where rain hasn't
fallen almost every day for two months.
We find that there are valuable lessons to
be learned from this section-lessons which
1--WE should apply to our immediate section
around Augusta in counties on both the South
Carolina and Georgia sides of the river.
In Anderson county, according to Farm
Agent ). NJ. Byers the average farm consists
oi AZ acres, of which 81 are in cultivation
There are few land owners and fewer still
are the land owners who live in the large
towns and cities and draw two bales OF rent
per pillow. There are much greater number
OF white people who live on the farm, own
the farm and do the greater portion OF their
own work. Twenty years ago Anderson coun-
ty consisted largely OF large farms with gull
lies across the fields large enough to hide
two room house. The land was impoverished
and the people, too. That was before the era
of modern farming, good roads, telephones,
etc, and when the roads were so bad in win
ter-due to rain and the red clay land-that
it was an effort for two mules to pull an emp
ty wagon. Even since the advent OF automo.
biles the people used to put their cars into
garages for three months in the winter.
Now all OF this is changed. The lands have
l.. s,+o ,1ch oil
tivated along intensive lines. farmer cuts
off a 50-aCre tract or l0O-aCre tract and
gives it to a son or daughter and under mod
ern methods of farming these lands become
richer and richer. Some farmers have also
come in here from other sections of the state
and bought lands which have been developed
to high degree of fertility. 1t is quite true
that they have been planting, and are now
planting, too much cotton, but they can change
over much better now to new methods than
we can, since methods OF farming in many
sections around Augusta are to rent thousands
Of acres to negroes at two bales per pillow and
never see these farms unless the renter fails
to bring in the cotton by the first or 18th
of October and then there is a hurried trip
to see what is the trouble.
AS the editor of the Chronicle has pointed
out time and again the day of the large land
owner absenting himself from his land is
over. The boil weevil has made it impossible
to give two bales rent per ploW and no bank
err cotton factor or merchant will furnish a
tenant with run" unless the landlord WAVES
the rent and even then no one is anxious to
furnish him. There must be a general carving
up of large plantations and the land sold to
small farmers in so to 100 acre tracts. OF
course, where the farmer who owns the land
lives on it he can, perhaps, manage to get
along, if he forces every tenant to make
enough corn wheat, syrup, potatoes, etc, and
raises enough hogs to feed himself. Then and
not until then will cotton be a surplus crop,
and if the tenant makes two bales or hive bales
per plow he will be able to live. Thoughtful
farmers will readily concede the truth of this
statement and we feel that all of them are
now convinced that cotton is a hazardous
proposition under boil weevi conditions. In
other words, if there is a dry year you can
make some cotton and II there is a wet year
you cannot make it. That is the history of
the weevil from the Rio Grande to the At
lantic
Speaking of Anderson county and the les
sons we can learn from it the reclamation OF
waste land, the splendid cultivation given the
crops and the elaborate system OF terracing
are some of them. Every CALLED spot is soWed
in cowpeas and it seems that every available
bit of land is in cultivation except that used
for pastures Some of the farms are on the
side of a hill 50 steep that would hesitate
to cultivate them at all, yet by the proper run
ming of rows and by terraCing there are splen-
did crops growing. The farmers take a pride
in their farms because they live their
farms, and it is self evident that where the
family moves off to the city and leaves the
old homestead in the hands of tenants dilapi-
dation is sure to follow. How many old fam
lily homesteads are there in our section OF
Georgia and South Carolina that are being
used as rookeries by the birds or that negroes
live in with the blinds fallen off, the house
unpanted and steps fallen down?