Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1924-03-27
South Georgia Sweet Potato
Growers Organize for Market

Backed by influential farmers and
business men of this section of the
state, movement has been launched
to organize the sweet potato grow
ers OF Georgia on the order of the
watermelon, syrup, peanut and other
organizations. Mr.. w. Frank Arm
old, one of the best known farmers
OF South Georgia and former county
official of Lowndes county has been
selected to act as temporary president
until permanent organization can be
formed. Mr.. J. K. Simmons of Valdos-
ia, who has had much experience in
cooperative marketing work, has been
selected as director of the organization
work.
A meeting in this county will be
called soon and it is understood that
similar meetings will be held in each
OF about Is counties of Southwest
Georgia. This association will be
owned and controlled by the farmers
themselves, and will be headed by a
dirt" farmer.
A gentleman who has been inter
ested in seeing the Georgia yam or
ganized and properly marketed, has
been gathering some data on its pos
sibilities, and he has gathered some
interesting information. 1t is found
that of the Is states that grow sweet
potatoes, Georgia leads the list with
$4,000 acres in 1922, the last avail
able statistics. Georgia produced H.
100000 bushels that year, and the far
mers only realized so cents bushel
out of them. New Jersey growers who
are organized, and who raise potato
inferior to our Georgia yams, got two
and one-half times as much as our
Georgia farmers received. Today po-
tatoes are selling for $500 bushel in
Chicago. According to that price our
Georgia farmers should have received
around $20.000000 for their potato
crop, whereas they only received about
$6,O00,000.
The soil of this section is ideally
suited to the growing of sweet po-
tatoes. 1t is planned to plant them
after tobacco in those counties where
tobacco is being grown, and after wa
termelons and winter grain in other
counties. 1t is said that there are en-
ough potato curing houses in the coun
ties it is proposed to organize to cure
over 100000 bushels, besides enough
tobacco curing houses to cure twice
that many. These tobacco barns will
be used largely in curing the potatoes.
That the farmers of this section can
realize a tremendous income from this
source by organizing, is proven by the
success of the California growers who
have realized such wonderful benefits
from their cooperative associations.
Ten years ago raisins were almost un-
heard of as food on the table. By
organizing, advertising and merchan-
dising, these people have increased the
demand for raisins five times and have
increased the price of them several
times over. Now every hotel or cafe
you enter, you find raisin pies, raisin
cakes, raisin pudding, besides you can
buy them at any drug store. The same
thing applies to other fruits. In all the
eating places you can buy pies made
from Washington state apples, Cali
fornia pruneS, apricots or peaches, Cal
ifornia or Florida lemons, cocoanuts
from South America, but not one place
i'll ten viii you find sweet potato pies.
1t is estimated that the demand for
sweet potatoes can be increased to ten
times as great as it is now, if they
are organized, advertised and merchan-
dised as they do the California prod
ucts. By organizing sweet potatoes
and holding them off the market until
Spring, the farmers can realize three
or four times as muh for them. By or
ganizing them they can secure govern
ment aid in holding them just like the
cotton and peanut associations are do
ing. Produce people say that our
Georgia sweet potatoes need to be
more carefully graded and packed and
with some system that will give bet
distribution, the price can be doubled
and tripled.
A meeting. is being planned at the
court house here soon, at which time
a director from this county will be