Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1925-03-12
=. T OWENS MAKES
AN AGRICULTURAL
SURVEY OF COUNTY
To Board of County Commissioners,
Ben Hill County, Georgia

l respectfully submit to you for
Your consideration and approval an
agricultural economic survey of the
county, which gives the following es-
Inmates as to the amounts bought and
shipped into the county to be used in
producing the 1924 crop as compared
to the amounts marketed on the Fitz-
gerald market fromth e 1924 crop.
Feed crops and livestock being the
most considered. From this survey it
is evident that there should be few
minor changes made in our agricult-
ural operations in the county, and in
order that this might be done to meet
the requirements of the largest ma
Jority of people, respectfully request
your body to cooperate with the coun-
tv school board in duly appointing
the following representative citizens
of the county: ]. E. Turner, M. Dick
son, w. H. Roberts, S. S. Young, w.
H. Robitzsch, R. R. Dorminy, J. H.
Billiard, R. L. Stone, H K Sigh, ] R
Kimball, E T Dunn, Lon Dickey, ].
H. Dorminy, Thorpe Fitzgerald, w.
M. Williams, w. R. Bowen, J J Dor
J A Bond, J Horton Taylor, H H
James, J N Swearingen, S. G. Pryor,
ST., too meet with you and myself at
my office next Saturday March 18th
at o'clock for the purpose of dis
cussing and agreeing upon some prac-
ticable agricultural program to be sub
mitted to the people of the county for
their approval This program should
not only include the growing of crops
but the marketing of crops as well.
From this survey it will be clearly
seen that practically all of our live
stock and some of our growing crops
are being marketed too cheaply on
account of better system of cooper
alive marketing.
l find that in the item of hogs alone,
there has been some or 10 cars mar
keted this winter with a loss of at
least $500 to the farmer on account
of the lack of necessary equipment
such as stock pens and scales for
handling cooperative hog sales. 1t will
also be seen from the study of this
survey that better arrangements can
be made for the marketing of other
farm produce.
l find that there was shipped into
the county Al car loads of hay valued
at $18, $50, Is car loads of oats valued
at $40, $50, 20 car loads of corn valued
$4,000, 80 car loads of chicken feed
valued at $4,000, IS car loads of flour
valued at $145,000, 20 car loads of
meat valued at $51 ,oO2.5O, 80 cars of
COW feed valued at $4,000.
You will note that the above esti-
the amount of poultry and eggs ship
+1a -
take into consideration the amount of
syrup shipped into the county, all of
which can be profitably grown as we
all know in Ben Hill.
Altogether the amocnts accounted
for is $305, o02.00
We also find from this survey that
our yield per acre is too small. From
IS, $50 acres of corn we grew 282, 400
bushels oran average of Is bushels per
acre. From 15,345 acres of cotton we
grew 1896 bales of cotton or an av-
erage of about 146 pounds of lint cot
ton per acre. From 1000 acres of
Spanish peanuts $40 tons or an aver
age of $40 pounds per acre. From AS
acres of tobacco we produced 10000
pounds averaging 800 lbs. per acre.
Other crops will show similar low
yields Notwithstanding last year
was a very favorable year for growing
crops, the oat and wheat crop was
smaller than it has been for years, the
hay crop slightly increased over the
previous year, but not sufficient to
meet the requirements of the county,
the sweet potato crop not near up to
normal and the syrup crop shorter
than it had been for years.
The hog crop was far below normal
about 10 or II car loads as compared
70 65 cars during the year 1922. The
Goultry production shows very sug-.
stantia1 increase although not up to
what can and should be grown. The
dairy business slightly increased and
yet at least so per cent below what it
should be to take care of the demands
of our local creamery. We find that
Quite lot of creamery butter from
other places is being shipped into the
city.
As you will note I have only taken
into consideration the staple Or field
crops, leaving off the vegetables and
fruits. -.
I trust from this survey and through
the assistance of the Agricultural Com
mittee we will be able to at least correct
some ofthe errors in our agricultural
operations.
Very truly,