Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1926-09-30
GEORGIA COTTON FARMERS ARE GROWING
THEIR MONEY CROP" AT Loss AND ARE
PAYING TOP PRICES FOR FOOD AND STOCK
|. FEED PRODUCED I'M THE MIDDLE { WEST
ny RAY WHITE


Until Georgia learns the lesson not
only of the importance but the posi-.
tive necessity of self-sustenance, ap.
plies it. and "lives at home," it is
obvious that efforts sto develop her
matchless latent resources along any
particular line will be largely wasted.
The teaching of this lesson, the
incubation Of the principle Of pro-
ducing so far as possible what we
consume, is largely rural problem
in fact, it constitutes the major basic
rural problem confronting the people
of Georgia. It is a problem toward
the solution of which every COM
mercial, industrial or development
organization invthea state might well
and proitably apply its best thought
and most constructive effort, and that
the great public utility corporations
of the state. as evidenced by the
broad-visioned and progressive ex-
pressions that have appeared from
time to time recently in THE WEEK.
have grappled this problem and are
more and more determinedly bend
ing their efforts toward its solution
is, indeed, one of the most hopeful
and encouraging signs of the times.
The prosperity of public utilities
corporations the banks, the mercan-
tile interests, depends necessarily
upon and is proportionate with the
prosperity Of the communities In
which they operate. That is patent.
They cannot prosper in community
that is not itself prosperous; which,
in Georgia to greater extent. per-
haps, than in any other state in the
Union, means that no commercial or
industrial organization can prosper
to the limit of possibilities unless the
Georgia farmers, Georgia agricul-
ture, enjoy prosperity. And it is OBJ
vious, too, that the farmers of Geor-
gia never can prosper until they
learn and apply the paramount les
SON of Giving at home"
In middle Georgia, where this Is
written, this year there are literally
scores of farmers who have PRODUCED
good cotton yields on their land, but
little or nothing else. In other words,
last spring the yplanted cotton al
most if not wholly-as in some in
stances that have come under this
writer's observation-to the exclu-
sion of crops food and stock feed.
This means, of course, that this Sec
ton will have to depend in large
part upon the agricultural products
of other states for the food and feed
it's human population and its live
stock must consume next winter.
Lamentably to state, furthermore,
that there is nothing novel nor un-
usual in this situation, in this de-
plorable, if not suicidal, economic
condition. 1t is common.
Right here in this section-which
potentially is veritable garden spot
there are hundreds if not thous-
ands of bales of cotton that were pro-
duced this year by farmers who
bought their meat and their meal
from merchants and some of whom
actually hauled from as far as thirty
miles hay and corn that was con-
sumed by their mules while their cot
ton crops were being made.
This food and stock feed, Of
course, came "high" to the Georgia
farmer-consumer. The farmers OF
the north and west who produced it,
rightfully enough, had to have their
price for it; the packing houses and
the mills las the case may be, right
fully enough had to have their profit
for the processing of it; the railroads,
rightfully enough, had to have their
profit for transporting it; the job
bers and the local merchants, right
fully enough, were entitled to theirs
for handling and distributing it. So
it was bought by the farmer-con-
sumer at extereme prices; and, OF
course, for that reason it was used
sparingly. That naturally results in
livestock's being poor and scantily
fed, in undernourished men and wo-
men and children.
And yet we still refer to cotton as
"Money Crop"
It is merely wasting time and it is
a useless waste of energy to try or
even to hope to develop an agricul-
tural state-which Georgia essential
" is-or to develop any given line
of industry in it, so long as its pri-
mary and all-essential industry is
pursued upon that basis.
In other words, Georgia can never
go forward as she might and as her
remarkable resources entitle her to
go forward so long as her igcriculcul-
ture in any considerable part is con-
Quoted by farmers who persist in
growing cotton year after year at a
net loss of from four to twelve cents
pound and in depending upon the
farms of Wisconsin, Minnesota,
Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, ETC., for
their food and feedstuffs!
This, as this writer sees it, is Geor-
gia's paramount and all-important
development problem; and Georgians
who are really trying to develop