Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1924-07-31
SOUTH GEORG|A'S COMEBACK
THROUGH NEW INDUSTRY

1 er warehouse tor DldS IN announcer near
by city.
These auction sales have greatly sti-
mulated prices each year and are prov
ing great boon to marketing the crop.
Quality Is Recognized
Tie quality of Georgia tobacco is
recognized as extremely fine, being
bright leaf tobacco and equally as
good as that produced in the finest
tobacco lands in the Carolinas, Ken.
lucky and Virginia The bright Leaf
is used almost exclusively for cigar
cites, and Georgia tobacco is consid-
cred by many buyers as superior to
quality for cigarettes than that grown
in any other section. Practically the
entire Georgia production is exported
most OF it by the Imperial Tobacco
Company OF England. The crop is
shipped, for the most part to Eng
land, Ireland and China.
The average yield per acre in Geor-
gia is between 800 and 1,2OO pounds,
depending hpon grade and quality OF
fertilizer, fertility of soil, methods OF
cultivation and climatic conditions.
Under ordinary conditions, according
to successful growers, the crop IS not
more expensive to produce than cot
ton, while profits are usually considt
erablv greater.
he grad: OF soil necessary to pro-
duce good tobacco is usually lower
than that necessary for cotton. The
Norfolk sandy loan is best suited for
tobacco and, oddly enough, is the very
grade of land which cotton farmers
ordinarily refer to as poor" This
fact, therefore, has enabled farmers
to grow tobacco on land on their
farms which is not adapted to cotton
and thus the cotton acreage, even Ill
counties which produce the largest
tobacco crops has not been reduced to
any great extent. Cotton growing
and tobacco growing. therefore, go
hand in-hand SO to speak, with cot
ton on the most fertile acres aud to-
bacco on land on which the fleecy sta
pie might not grow SO well.
Requires Great Care
Tobacco is crop, it is pointed out,
that requires constant and careful at
tention, altho skilled workers are not
necessary. The average Georgia ten
ants, whites and negroes, are capable
IF producing excellent tobacco crops,
t is said Work is the first and major
requisite, in as much as tobacco has
o be worked" more frequently than
lotion, altho not necessarily plowed
Is often. Methods of cultivation differ,
VI course.
Tobacco has been grown in Geor-
,ia since the earliest days of the state, |
Il.
never exploited to any great degree |
until recent years The first big" crop |
vas produced in 1919, and at that time
markets were not we'll organized, farm
RS were not well acquainted with the
Methods of cultivation, and the quail
ty of the crop was not as good as
night be desired. The year was one
# experiment on a rather large basis,
nd was not the splepdid success it is
t present.
The results briefly, was that while
he experiment proved beyond any
ioubt that Georgia was admirably
uited for tobacco and would, in time
o come, take its place among sister
tatcs in tie tobacco industry organi-
alton of marketing systems and edu-
alton of farmers along lines OF to-
,acco production was essential to the
uccess In 1920 and succeeding years,
lntil 1924, the acreage was not nearly
10 large as i'll 1919, many farmers
howing disposition to "let the others
Many Counties Suitable
While the principal tobacco farms
n Georgia are located in the coastal
,lain, majority of them lying along
he A. B. & A. railroad, good tobac
20 can be grown in a majority of |
Georgia counties.
Where the Norfolk sandy loan or
he so-called lower grade of land is
ound, tobacco can be produced i'll
commercial quantities without any ex-
ra ecort, expert tobacco growers as
'ert
John d. Taylor, prominent banker
possibilities of tobacco in Chattooga
county in northwest Georgia, and
early in 1923 induced few expert
enced tobacco farmers of North Caro-
Ina to come to that county to grow
tobacco.
A number of Chattooga farmers
were induced ito experiment with small
acreage and so far as the production
was concerned it was satisfactory. The
small crop, however, failed to attract
buyers and it was shipped to- North
Carolina and sold for much less than
it would have brought under other
conditions, The quality of the leaf
was highly commented upon by tobac-
CO experts. This year the acreage has
been reduced.
Practically the same situation has
developed in scores of counties in va
rious sections of the state during the
past two or three years. 1t is be-
lieved, nevertheless, that the acreage
will continue to increase and that
Georgia will soon be among the lead
ing tobacco-raising states in the union
Period of Deflation
Dehation set in following the war
and with it came the sweep of the boil
weevil The year is still fresh in the
minds and hearts of millions of farm
ers, bankers and business men, who
watched the startling decrease in val
ues of lands, the drop in collateral of
land and the general decentralization
of business. With the possible excep-
ton of the upheaval during the days
immediately following the War Be-
tween the States, there is probably no
darker period in all the history of
Georgia than in 1o1o-20-21-22. The de-
struction of the boil weevil, added to
other depressing conditions in hnan-
cial circles, brought bouta condition
Ordering on chaos Thousands of
farmers left their homes and farm
lands and entered upon other work,
thousands of negroes who had been
hrouoht ,,o IN cotton farms found