Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-03-29

/ experiment stations have demonstrate
ed both sit practicability and reli-
ability, the government and the
| states have been slow to take the
necessary legislative steps to insure
it's complete elimination.
There was a time when hog cholera
decimated the herds of our swine
growers without let or k:ndrance.
Now We have a specific for its con-
troll. thanks to the efforts of our re-
search workers. In my own state we
have been able to practically double
the hog population in five years.
largely because of the availability
and general use of preventive hog
cholera serum. In this connection [
must in justice emphasize the en-
thusiastic work done by our swine
growers and the boys pig clubs in
particular.
In travelling around the country
one comes almost daily in contact
with some beautiful or unusual tree,
flower. shrub or crop growing in the
open field. 1t is thriving in new
habitat. 1t represents the benign
contribution which the research
worker has conferred upon the indt-
vidual, the community or the state
concerned. I wonder if we have any
proper conception of the infinite
pleasure and the vast commercial
benefits the introduction and dissent
nation of new seeds, plants, trees,
shrubs and flowers have brought to
the people of the several states. In
Georgia we have great and thriving
truck and fruit industry. It was
brought into being years ago. Then
came an invasion of fungous diseases
and insect pests; whole orchards
were wiped out and many a bank
ruptcy followed; the activities of GER
tain communities were paralyzed and
an6 t. /
south was a thing of the past Then
came the scientist with his spray
machinery and with his various
formulas for fighting and controlling
orchard pests, and behold. a miracle
mas taken place. and now there are
orchards which stretch as far as the
eye. can see where once great areas
of dead trees made a forbidding land
scape. L wonder if those who live and
prosper by the good gifts which the
scientist under the grace of God has
Drought to their very doors appre-
clate now much his work and service
means to them.
In the south many of our soils
are deficient in certain plant food ele-
ments. Unless a proper equilibrium
in this respect can be established and
maintained profitable crops cannot be
raised on these lands. Few practical
farmers think it worth while to plant
such standard crops as corn or cotton
without using fertilizers, but 1 am
sure most of them do not realize that
the materials they use and the euui-
llbr1um in the formula which they
apply were evolved as result Of
many years of painstaking conscien-
tlouS effort on the part of the chem
list whose name mad worth to the
people he serves remain unknown
These few examples of the benefits
which the aYnaripoonf efo
the workers of the United States de-
partment of agriculture have confer
req upon the people of the south
must suffice to illustrate in a sort
OF cursory fashion some Of the MANY
SUBSTANTIAL benefits which have ac-
Grued to our agriculture and its re-
iated industries as a result of fine
Investigations conducted by the man
ana women associated with these in
situations. III
Ihere is another phase of research
work now attracting general atten-
llon winch promises to be as far
reaching in its effect upon the health
and wellbeing of our rural popula-
tlon as anything which has come to
pass IN more than a century. 1t has
recently been discovered that much
OF the sickness and backwardness of
cnlIqren are traceable to deficiencies
IN the dietary. Investigations made
up to the present time indicate that
we have literally millions of suffer
ers from these causes in these
great rich United States of which
we are SO justly proud. There is
not state without a considerable
proportion of mal-nourished chill
dren within it's borders. In fact, the
trouble is not confined to children
by any means, but affects a large
per cent of our adult population as
we'll. We were greatly non-plussed
curing the war to find that thirty
three and a third per cent of our
man-power was ineffective when
called into service largely on ac-
count of defects in the dietary Of
course, there were many other mel
dental and contributing causes
which must not be overlooked or for
gotten. Analogy would indicate that
there would be about the same per-
centage of defective women as men,
We now know that many dietary
troubles are due to the lack Of
vitamines Of which there are several
classes. We understand that beri-
beri is a disease caused by an ex-
cessive rice diet and that it's control
is comparatively simple. We know
that the richest and most luxuriant
diet will cause i'll health as wit
messed by the Affections which be-
fell the crew Of the Krnoprinz Will
helm. the German raider interned at
Norfolk in the spring Of 1915. The