Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1926-11-04
No Farmer Can Prosper
Unless He Grows FOOdstuff
For His Own Consumption
By H. M. STANLEY
Commissioner of Commerce and
Labor

= A Investigation of farming opera
lions and sound marketing facilitie:
are essential to success.
The days of the all-cotton crop are
over if they ever really prevailed.
Except once in while no farmer
could ever make money planting cot
ton when he had to buy his corn ane
meat from the West. On the Other
hand, the farmer who raised all his
meat and corn and his other supplies
was not hurt as bad as others if there
was a poor cotton crop or CHEAP
price.
The big drain upon any farm
operation is the supplies needed tC
run the farm, and when the corn erik
and smokehouse are both in the
West, farming is a precarious occu'
patton at best.
Upon every we'll regulated farm
there should be ample meat in the
raising, there should be few beet
cattle and of course at least two good
milk cows, and yard full of chick
ems, turkeys, guineas and other fowls
Go where you will and where you
find a farmer with good pasture in
which can be found sleek cattle and
fat hogs, and colt or two, you will
! and farmer who owes nothing at the
bank, or SO little that the note can
be easily met in the fall.
On the other hand, view the broad
acres of cotton and the small fields
Of corn and no cattle and no hogs,
and you will find a farmer badly in
debt and growing worse all of the
time 1t simply can't be done. "The
COW, the hog and the hen" as slogan
, is Of little value unless the subject
! becomes a reality.
First of all the farmer must have
an attractive home. That does not
mean necessarily a very fine house.
Even if it is nothing but a cabin it
should be neatly painted, the yard
should be shaded, and flowers should
; be growing here and there.
There should be a good vegetable
garden in which the house, wife can
take proper pride.
| Proper care should be taken to Sc
| lect good breed of hogs and good
I breed of cattle. A scrub cow costs
as much to feed as Jersey. Like
wise, razorback hog will eat just
as much as any standard breed and
furnish not one-fourth of the meat
Hog culture was at one time a risky
! business on account of the cholera
One need fear little from cholera
these days, as cholera serum prompt.
ly and efficiently corrects this evil.
! The destruction of cattle tick has
( likewise made beef cattle and milk
cows immune from the serious illness
that formerly befell them.
Georgia has done well and made
wonderful progress in the last ter
years. Greater improvements can be
made. We have done well, but We
must do better. Every individual
farm must be self sustaining. WheI
that goal is reached a much better
;. day will dawn for Georgia. a.
The diversifcation of crops mean
that farmers must raise enough foot
stuff to supply the farm. Corn, hogs
oats, potatoes, cane, all garden trucl
needed, and various other item
4 which can be successfully utilized a
j food for stock and man. There
no reason why any farmer in Geor
gia should buy food supplies, and un
less he puts himself in a position t.
feed himself, his hands and his stock
he will find at the end of the yea
that farming has not been success
: Practically everything grown any
: where can be successfully raised i
Georgia, and in Georgia there can b
cultivated very many profitabl
things that the farmers of the othe
sections are unable to produce.
the farmers of the West can max
money growing grain on land whic
!. costs from $500 to $500 per acre, i
all conscience the Georgia farmer
: who can grow anything, and who's
} land is very much less valuable
price but just as productive in sol
ought to be the most independent PEE
son on the face of the earth.
Agriculture is the back bone of tn
: country. 1t is literally true that 18th
|, farmer feeds US ALL but it is NJ
d always the Georgia farmer who is d.
y ing this.
a Georgia is still not self-sustainin'
We are still bringing In all kinds
: food products, and farming never wi
8 be profitable until the balance Of tt
n ledger is in favor of the Georg
farmer.
). l know that theorizing accon
plishes nothing, but if all of us kee
l. continually at it the time may CON
W when Georgia will supply all her blu
& ter, her own wheat, her own syru
q her own supply of oats, her own ha
. her own beef cattle, her own hog
; eggs, chickens and turkeys, and whe
II that day comes it will be the farm'
sc and not the banker and the merchal
who will be the monied men of ar
r community.
= Until that day comes the farm'
u will not be as prosperous as he shou
n be. Agriculture is a great profe
10 sion-one of the noblest of them al
~ It should likewise be just as rem,
:, nerative as any other vocation.