Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1923-08-01
TURNER COUNTY'S
PLAN is OUTLINED
Story of Regeneration of Sec
ton Faced by Ruin Is Told
in The Country Gentleman
CONTINUED from Page ~

movement. Belts led the agitation
which proclaimed that the farmer
was Turner county's one big re-
source,
Turner Countys Need.
1.-THE need as the leaders saw it,
the article goes on, was to put
dairy cows, hogs and hens on Turn
er countys farms, to help the far
mers get on self-supporting basis.
The other desirable thing then
would follow. 1t wasn't easy to
get the plan under way. Money
was very scarce, local markets for
anything except cotton were few
and poor paying, the banks were
doubtful and many of the farm
ers hesitant about risking the little
they had left in a new departure.
The first test came in raising
capital to install a creamery. FIN
ally. SO men, some Of them farm
crs some townspeople, were found
who agreed to put up their notes
for 800 each.
Meetings were held all over the
county.
Il was at Ashburn the day the
creamery opened" writes Mr..
Taylor, there stood the new ma
chinery of the creamery with the
butter maker an experienced man
from a northern dairy district, in
readiness. But nobody knew how
much or little cream to expect
Then farmers began bringing it in
in glass jars, in buckets, in syrup
tins, in any kind of receptacle that
would serve the purpose. More ar
rived by train. The first month
the dairy turned out 5000 pounds
of butter.
"The farm bureau arranged for
the shipment Of carload of young
Guernsey bulls and heifers from
the Rowan County Cooperative
Bull Association, a farmers or
ganization at Salisbury, N. c. By
the time the shipment reached Ash
burn arrangements had been made
SO that Turner county farmers
could buy the stock, Six banks in
the county joined in this advertise
ment in The Wiregrass Farmer, of
Ashburn, the first of series Of
epochal bank advertisements
" Recognizing that farming is by
far the greatest and most impor-
tant industry in Turner county,
and that its successful pursuit Is
vitality important to the success of
not only every business institution
In the county but of our schools
and churches; and believing as we
do that good dairy cows, hogs and
poultry are indispensable to profit
able farming under boil weevil
conditions, we will, as far as in our
power, lend to worthy farmers fl
nancial assistance in providing such
live stock. 1t will be our policy
to lend such aid only to farmers
growing on their farms sufficient
feeds to properly care for all live
stock o ntheir farms"
"Twenty-three pure-bred bulls,
seven heifers and one COW We're
sold in that first shipment, all but
four of the animals going to Turn
er county farms. Fourteen other
carloads of cattle, mostly good
grade COWS, followed in the next
year, all bought under the super
vision of County Agent Rails 1t
was his foresight that saved Turn
er county from the setback suffer
ed by many new dairying communi-
ties through flooding of the
county with poor cows brought in
by INSCRIPTIONS dealers. Several
attempts were made to sell that
kind of cattle but, lacking the APP
prevail of the farm bureau, they
failed so signally that the cattle had
to- be sold as beef.
"The output of the Ashburn
creamery doubled every month of
its first year. By the beginning of
1923 it had reached volume of
$4,000 pounds of butter a month.
1t has become one of the three larg-
eset creameries in the south, pay
ing an average Of $4,000 a month
to farmers. Half that sum stays
in Turner county, the rest of the
patronage coming from as far as
one hundred miles. 1t is one of