Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-12-03
An Economic Revolution

pointed out by DR.. Milton P. Jarni-
gan, distinguished head of the animal hus-
bandry division of the State College of Agri-
with The Journal: SIN the past Georgia
has produced approximately two million
bales of cotton annually, and, while the
crop has actually made no money for the
grower, it has served as a medium of ex-
change that has paid not only the farmers
debts, but virtually those of the entire
commonwealth. This year, however, we
shall have only about thrse-auarters or
million bales, and it is doubtful that we
again shall make above million bales in
single year."
There really should be no lamentation
over the breakdown of system that has
given men for their utmost toll and care
no better reward than medium for paying
debts which that system itself loaded upon
them and tended to perpetuate. Seed-time
after seed-time cotton farmers have planted,
and summer after sumer poured out their
life's strength, only to find, when autumn's
reckoning was over, that they stood fnan-
cially just where they began. All or the
greater part Of the proceeds of their money"
-rop would be consumed by food and supply
ment, no appreciable surplus above bare
living, no sustenance for ambition and hope.
Exceptions there were, of course; but for
the rank and file it was a dreary, profit SIS
treadmill, and for the commonwealth bur-
den of economic bondage. If the boil weevil
shall indeed break those letters, he will be
remembered as the great emancipation
But in the economic revolution thus in
Dictated care must be taken to provide other
money" crops for cotton, else there will be
grievous confusion and hardship. If the gap
is to be filled, say such authorities as DIR.
Soule and DR.. Jarnigan, most of the acre
age withdrawn from cotton cultivation mast
be devoted to the production of grains; and
when this is done, George will have mar
keting problem far-fung indeed, problem
that will be unsolvable unless livestock in
dustry is built up ,coincident with the in
crease in grain and hay"
This, beyond question, is the crux of the
matter with which every foresigkted Geor-
gian is now keenly concerned. For while
truck farming, orcharding, and such agricul-
tural specialties as yam growing will utilize
part of the relinquished cotton acreage and
will prove, as far as they go, highly profit
able, there must be resort to the great sta
Piles if food-haryest equivalent of approx
mately million bales of cotton is to be pro-
duced. But those staples cannot be market
ed to the best advantage, if indeed at any
considerable gain, except they be converted
into commodities less bulky and more costly
than corn and forage. DR.. Jarnigan aptly
cites in this connection the record of pioneer
farming in what is now the Middle West.
AS long as settlers depended on the sale of
shelled corn at from eight to twelve cents
a bushel, they barely eked out subsistence;
but when they began feeding corn to swine
and cattle, Transforming five carloads of the
grain into one of live stock, thus saving
eighty per cent on transportation, securing
invaluable enrichment of the soil, and at the
same time realizing substantial profits on
what they sold, then came the turn to
prosperity that made the region as popular
as it was economically powerful.
From divers times and places of Ameri-
can history come reminders that Georgia, at
this crucial juncture of her agricultural and
business affairs, must convert grain and for
age crops into butter, cheese, pork, beef and
kindred products if she is to prosrer and go
forward. In the year 1918 Virginia plant
er wrote, Even in the country where 1 re-
side, not eighty miles from tidewater, It
takes the farmer one bushel of wheat to
pay the expense of carrying two to sea-
port town." That was when roads were
few, and poor at their best, and railways
more than generation tutureward. Still,
canny farmers learned how to overcome or
offset limitations of transport They con-
trived that the corn should walk to market
instead of being shipped or wagoned thither.
1.-THE bulk of the CROP" one historian OBJ
serves, 'as compared with it's value prac-
tically prevented transportation by land far
Their than hundred miles. 1t is this which
helps to explain the attention which the in
terrier country first gave to making whisky
and raising live stock; the former carried the
crop in a small bulk with high value, while
the live stock could carry ITSELF" And trav-
elers of the period, we are told were as
tonished to see on the highway droves of
four or fire thousand hogs; it was estimated
that over one hundred thousand hogs were
driven east annually from Kentucky alone"
In 1928 upwards of million one hundred
and sixty thousand dollars worth of live
stock passed the turnpike gate at Cumber
land Gap.
On much the same principle but along
more efficient lines and with more profitable
results can the issues of Georgia's present
economic revolution be met and solved. Adj
vantages of transportation and aids of
science undreamed in the country's earlier
days are at our service. To sell corn and
forage in the form of breakfast bacon AMI
dairy delicacies is to make manufacturers
profit, which of all profits is most substan-
tial; it is to escape the 'readmill and the
bondage of the all cottol-system; it is to
make Georgia true empire of prosperity
and progress
a.