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Interesting Story of Toombs County Appearing in the Sunday’s Edition of The At lanta Georgian, November 11th-—by R. E. White, Special Representative of The Georgian. , In the matter of intelligently and consistently working toward an even ly balanced diversification and co-op erative marketing plan of agriculture Toombs is well in advance of the av erage of South Georgia counties. It has not gone sor far as some, per haps, but farther than the majority, and throughout the progress it has made toward abandonment of the all-cotton system it has been conserv ative and kept its feet on the ground. Toombs in the past has not been “press agented” as some counties have been; unlike most communities having good qualities comparable with those of Toombs, it has been under-advertised rather than other wise, and unduly modest in exploit ing its splendid resources. That un doubtedly is one reason why this county is not as -well known to the outside world as it deserves to be. As a matter of fact, there is, per haps, not a county in Georgia that has more successfully withstood the shock of the rural adversities of the last few years than has Toombs, and it is doubtful if there is one whose people, taking them as a whole, are in better condition to “carry on.” The four banks of Toombs county, with aggregate re sources of approximately $1,500,000, are in excellent condition; its mer chants and other business interests are managing well to “make ends meet;” its farmers as a rule are not perturbed about the future; the gen eral spirit, the morale of the com munity is excellent. More Diversification. The reason for this is that, while Toombs county tried to make a bum per cotton crop this year and failed dismally, it produced at the same time more general crops, raised more feed, made more permanent pasture, milked more cows than ever before ir its history of eighteen years as a county. Its citizens—banks, business men and farmers —realize that this diver sity of products, and not cotton, is what is pulling them through, that diversification is the only system upon which a rural community in this latitude may safely depend and they are more resigned after this year’s experience with cotton than ever before to stake their future upon it. Os course there are exceptions among the farmers—men who blind ly take the position that “God Al mighty intended this to be a cotton section; I’ve raised cotton all my life, as my father and my grand father did before me; I don’t know and don’t want to know how to do anything else, and as long as I am in the farming business I’m going to be a cotton farmer.” Even State Senator George Lankford, Toombs county lawyer and land owner, expressed that sentiment the other day in discussing his farming plans for next year. “I’m going to plant cotton again,” he said, despite his discouraging experience with that crop this year. “Cotton is the only thing I have ever been able to make any money out of, and I’m going in for it next year just the same as I did this year.” But the rank and file of the for mer cotton farmers here express themselves as being “cured of cot ton,” and are earnestly planning to pitch their next year’s crops in ac cordance with an approved diversifi cation' plan, with the dairy cow as its basis. it is a significant fact that banks are taking the lead in en couraging them to do that, and that is a highly hopeful sign. A few weeks ago the Lyons Boos ters Club and the Vidalia Kiwanis Club calling into consultation (the county agent, his advisory council— composed of eight representative farmers of the various districts of the county—and representatives of the banking and business interests, held a series of meetings for the purpose of working out a program of farm operations such as would be peculiarly adaptable to the needs of this county. In doing this these gentlemen gave particular considera tion to the Georgia association’s so called “Turner County Plan,” to the variations of that plan that have I>een approved by other counties, and to the various suggestions and r&'-ommendations along similar lines and to the same purpose, that have been put forward by the rural ex perts of the State College. The result was the adoption of the “Toombs County Farm Program,” with the following preamble: “Realizing that Toombs county needs to adopt a definite farming plan which can be developed from year to year, the Lyons Boosters Club j and the Vidalia Kiwanis Club have worked out and suggest the follow- j ing general plans, that changing cash crops each year .be discontinued . and a more stable plan adopted.” Then comes the plan itself: The Program. “Requirement* of a farm plan: “1. It must furnish food for the i persons and animals on the farm. “2. It must build up the fertility, of the soil. “3. Man and mule labor must be well divided throughout the year. “4. At least two proven cash crops on each farm. “Crop plan, one-horse farm: “Ten acres corn, velvet beans and peanuts. , “Five acres cotton. “Three acres tobacco, big stem Jersey potatoes, peanuts or iother cash crop. “One acre sugar cane. “Two acres late potatoes for win ter use. “Five acres oats, followed by cow peas. “Two acres wheat, followed by cowpeas or peanuts. “One-half acre half orchard and half garden. “There should be on each farm: “Two to six milk cows, depending on whether for family use or ship ping cream. “Two high grade or purebred sows. “Fifty purebred hens. “Twelve acres permanent pastures and woodland. “Goal For Five Years: “Cotton—9,ooo bales annually in county on above small acreage, by increasing the per acre production, thus realizing more profit. “Corn, oats, wheat, rye—raised in abundance for feeding livestock and poultry, with surplus each year as suring plenty of [feed for fattening livestock and pushing egg production. “Velvet beans, cowpeas and soy beans—be sown more generally and enough hay be produced for feeding livestock during the winter and du ring droughts in the summer. More velvet beans saved for feeding cows. “Big Stem Jersey sweet potatoes— encouraged as July cash crop. “Tobacco—be used as alternate cash crop where farmer is prepared. Farmers /be impressed with the im portance of selecting a cash crop to go with cotton and sticking with that crop foi; several years. “Two hundred hogs per year; fifty thousand pounds cream shipped each month. “Two cars poultry and 1000 cases eggs shipped monthly. “Seventy-five cars high grade beef cattle shipped annually. “Thirty cars dewberries shipped annually. “Twenty-five per cent increase in the acreage production in five years. “Better schools and churches, and painted homes. “Good roads throughout county. “Average of 250 members m each of boys and girls clubs. “County agent and home demon stration departments permanent with 1 office help. “Vocational agriculture and home economics teacher in each consolida ted school. “Two local hatcheries. “Poultry feeding and killing sta tion. “Permanent pastures on every farm. “Garden and small orchard on each farm.” Widely Distributed. This program was printed in the form of “dodgers,” each of the banks taking many copies of it upon which they placed their flat approval, and which they are giving the widest possible distribution throughout the county. S. J. Henderson, cashier of the First National Bank, Lyons, is a di rector of the Georgia Association, and every officer of this and each of the other three banks in Toombs county—two of these institutions be -1 ing in Vidalia—is likewise an en- THE LYONS PROGRESS, LYONS, GEORGIA. 111 . tbusiastic advocate of diversificaton and a system of co-operative market ! ing for the benefit of the farmers and the community at large. W. O. Donovan, president of the First Na which he intends to divide his land owner, has worked out a plan by which h intends to divide his land holdings into 50-acre farms, upon | which he will reqiure the tenant to limit his cotton acreage to five, to grow one acre of tobacco, the rest to be devoted to truck or feed crops and permanent pasture for hogs and dairy cattle. George S. Rountree, cashier of the same bank, also owns alarm upon which, at Mr. Rountree’s direc tion, the occupant produces a diver : sity of crops and milks eight cows. W. T. China, cashier of the Toombs County Bank, Lyons, is one of the I “diversificationist” leaders of the : community; and when T. G. Selman, ■ cashier of the Georgia State Bank, Vidalia, was asked what the officers of his institution advised the farm ers to grow another year, replied: “Anything to get them away from cotton. j That indicates the attidude of the banks of Toombs toward the modern j idea of farming in South Georgia, ; and every one of them stands ready to assist any deserving farmer to procure thd stock necessary to op erate on the cow, hog and hen basis. Many Crop* This Year Toombs, though prominent in the past as a “cotton county,” is grow ing a wider variety of farm prod ucts, and successfully, than perhaps any other county in the Coastal Plain section of Georgia. In point of soil types, of general fertility, of climate, of physical contour, of transportation facilities, of access to markets, etc., no county excels it in adaptability to generalized and va ried agriculture. Besides cotton, Toombs County this year produced in more i.or less abundance tobacco, sweet potatoes, dewberries, pecans, corn, beans, hay, j cane, peas, and various other minor ! food, feed and truck crops. It has supplied its full quota of dairy, pork and poultry yard products, which have been sold with results calcu lated to encourage greatly increased pioduction next year and in the years to come. The farmers and the people of the ! county generally give to the county agent much credit for these good re sults, both in the production and in the co-operative marketing of these diversified products. This official C. G. Garner, an experienced man in his line, a graduate from the State College, is without doubt one of the most energetic, conscientious and level-headed county agents in the state. He operates upon the common-sense theory that in ex tremes there is danger. He adheres i strictly to a policy of conservatism I in agriculture and in the plannng of farm operations, considering all-to bacco, all-corn, all-potatoes or all anything else as unwise and hazard ous as all-cotton. Also, while advo cating and promoting the cow, hog and hen system to the fullest extent of his power, he admonishes the farmer not to launch upon the field 1 of dairying until he first provides the necessary feeds for his stock, and 1 he takes the unassailable position that the primary requisite of suc cess in dairying is ample perma nent pasturage. Dairying Sound Here. Therefore, while dairying is not so 1 extensively practiced in Toombs as ■ in some of the other counties that * have joined the Georgia Association and adopted the diversification plan, what there is of it here is on sound 1 substantal Ibasis, for the most part, its permanency of success assured ‘by conservatism in its beginning, 1 and permanent pastures. Illustratives of the variety of ■ Toombs Couty products and of the ' value of the county agent’s services in marketing them, The Lyons Pro gress recently published an editorial • statement showing that, between January 1 and August 1, 1923, Mr. Garner assisted the farmers of Toombs County in selling, co-opera -1 tively, seven carloads of hogs; 10 of corn; eight of hilled potaties; 13,- 878 pounds of poultry, 1,544 dozens ' of eggs. The total receipts form 1 these sales were $16,007.64, and, ac -1 cording to The Progress, the activi ties of the county agent netted the producers an aggregate net saving of $1,834.50. This suggests only in a measure 1 the extent} to which County Agent Garner is aiding the farmers of Toombs to produce top market prices | for the stuff they grow; in fact sales 1 in live stock, of poultry and of vari ous field products, are held either monthly in Lyons, the county seat, or Vidalia, the principal city of the county, or as frequently as the re spective products can be assembled for sale in carload quantity. While there is no actual co-operative mar keting association in operation here, except the Interstate Cotton Growers’ Association, all of this marketing is done in accordance with co-operative principles. During the last two years the county agent has conducted nine co-operative hog sales in this county and now he is conducting regular monthly sales, on the fourth Friday of each month, and he anticipates the sale of four more carloads of these animals between the date this is written and January 1, 1924. Many Fine Hogs. At the present time there are ap proximately 15,000 hogs in the coun ty, many of them blooded stock, al though, according to Mr. Garner, the want of a fence law and the fact of open free range have a ten dency to perpetuate the “razorbacks” and reduce the quality of Toombs County swine in general. However, the quality is rapidly building up despite these handicaps. Toombs County is rapidly coming to the front also in the production of tobacco. There is a tobacco ware house in Vidalia in which a total of 488,794 pounds of this product—not all grown in Toombs County, how ever—were sold this year at an av erage price to the grower of 23.76 cents per pound. The tobacco acre age will be increased materially next year, together with that of potatoes and various other field crops, at the 1 expense of cotton, in accordance with the Toombs County farm program. What Sweet Did Another crop that is proving a money-maker in Toombs County is big-stem Jersey sweet potatoes; and Toombs is the only Georgia County in which this crop has proven suc cessful thus far. It was introduced on a commercial scale only two years j ago by W. L. Duncan, a farmer and aminister of the gospel, who came ! to Toombs County from North Caro- : lina in the spring of 1921. Since | that time he has devoted his farm 1 operations almost exclusively to the , production of “big-stem Jerseys,” j and has been highly successful. He ' grew* 30 acres of these sweets this year, which netted him SIOO per acre. Next year he plans to devote i 200 acres to them, and the total acreage for the county, is isexpect- : ed, will be in the neighborhood of ' 400 acres. Mr. Duncan also milks a .few cows, keeps hogs and chickens and produces feed and forage crops for his home use. M. M. Coleman, Jr., manager of the farm in which he and his aged father are jointly interested, is one of the most progressive young farm- j j ers of the county. He practices ■ i diversification in its strictest sense, and as a side-line he specialises in white Leghorn chickens, of which he has a beautiful flock of more than 200. He farms 100 acres; has a fine pecan grove in bearing; milks three Jersey cows and sells butter; keeps hogs and produces a variety of truck crops for market. H. J. James, New Bronch section is another diverification-plan farmer who ships cream from a small herd of cows, keeps hogs and chickens and raises sweet potatoes as a major field crop. Ross Sharpe, of Elza, also farms in accordance with that plan. He spe cializes in poultry. During the sea son when eggs were selling at around 25 cents he realized a profit of $1 per day from 100 hens. Another farmer of this type, who is getting himself firmly established in the poultry business and diversified farming is A. L. Powell, Ohoopee Post Office. He has 287 acres, on a large part of which he attempted —for the last time, he says—this year to raise cotton. Profits in Cows One ofthe most practical farm dairymen in the county is J. D. Todd Vidalia, who, in addition to operat ing his 96-acre farm, of which 55 acres are in cultivation carries a rural mail route each day. Ordi narily he milks 10 cows, although only six of them are in service at j this time. His cows yield from 2 1-2 to 3 gallons of milk per day, the cream from which nets him an av erage of $lO per month per cow. Mr. Todd has eight acres of the finest permanent carpet grass pasture in Toombs County. He keeps hogs and hens to consume his skim milk, and j produces feed crops sufficient for his own use. H. T. and W. L. Stanley, promi- , nent farmers of the Ohoopee dis- ( trict, also milk six cows, sell cream, keep hogs, chickens and turkeys and “live at home.” Thus far during 1923 they have marketed S6OO worth of hogs from their farm, and have between 75 and 100 of different ages and sizes now on hand. Between last January 1 and July 15 B. T. Osborne, a farmer of near Lyons, sold $250 worth of cream from his eight cows. He operates a three-horse “cow, hog and hen farm,” and from one acre in 1922 he produced sweet potatoes which he Sold frpm the bank last spring for SIOO. He is not interested in cot ton beyond the limit of five acres to the plow. J. C. Wing is another Toombs County farmer who says: “I have about had my fill of cotton,” and plans too to begin shipping cream from his five dairy cows. • To Import Cows E. L. and S. B. Meadows, farmers of near Vidalia, are preparing to i make the dairy cow a primary fact or in their farm operations hence forth. The former, who farms 100 plows, has made arrangements to im port a carload of dairy cows to stock his dairy. Each ofthese farmers is a heavy producer of tobacco, also growing dewberries and various oth er “money crops,” but little cofon. One of the rural “show places” of the county is the poultry, hog and dairy plant on the Magnolia Pecan and Stock Farm, of which W. P. C. Smith, a Lyons business man, is proprietor. It is a magnificent place and one of the most elaborate and complete institution of its kind in Georgia. The farm contains 300 acres, near Lyons, all devoted to the production of feedstuffs to be mar keted on the hoof, in a cream can or in an egg basket. No cotton. H. T. Taylor, three miles from Lyons, has 350 acres, on 150 acres of which he produced this year only 15 bales of cotton. He is now milk ing 12 cows, shipping cream to Cor- I dele, and expects soon to increase j his active dairy herd to 20. He I raises hogs and poultry, and his in -1 terest in cotton is no longer keen. Mrs. J. L. Gibson, proprietress of | a small dairy on the Gibson farm, ; near Vidalia, started shipping cream from five cows on January 1, 1922; and during that year, while learn ing the business, she cleared $225. From January 1 to July 1 this year i she. cleared, from nine cows, $366. Then came a “dry spell” in the Gib son dairy, but the plant is now going again at a rate more intensive than ! ever. Mrs. Gibson manages the dairy while her husband and son pro duce the feed. They raise hogs and poultry, and a little cotton in addi i tion to feed crops, j A similar record is being made by another woman operator of a farm i dairy in that vicinity, Mrs. Sarah Polk. She milks five cows, and has arranged to add eight more to her herd by Christmas and to ship cream feeding the skim milk to hogs and hens. She now makes butter, for which she finds a ready demand locally. Tobacco Increasing B. F. and T. R. McSwain, broth ers, operating adjacent farms a few miles from Lyons, are other enthu- | siasts and leaders in the diversifica- i tion cow-hog-hen movement, and are making good progress, although this year they devoted most of their en ergy to cotton. i This year an aggregate of 125, acres of Toombs County’s 251,000- odd acres of farm area were devoted to tobacco, which yielded about 800 pounds to the acre. Next year this acreage will be increased, probably to between 350 and 400 acres. The county also produced and shipped six carloads of dewberries from an aggregate of 125 acres de voted to that crop. Most of the ! growers received returns of around S2OO per acre, some doing even bet ter than that. Pecan nut culture is fast coming :to the front as a Toombs industry, i and during the forthcoming winter j the Pecan Plantations Company of which J. B. Brewton, Vidalia, is pres ident and manager, intends estab lishing a 15-acre pecan nursery in this county. All manner of crops adapted to this zone do well in Toombs County, which contains ridges and belts of some of the richest land to be found anywhere in the state. The county contains two thriving little cities, Lyons and Vidalia, pop j ulations, respectively, of about 1,500 , and 3,000. In each is a live weekly newspaper, both owned by N .C. Na pier, brother of State Attorney Gener al. Mr. Napier edits the Vidalia paper, The Advance, while the Lyons Progress is edited and managed by C. T. Darley, lessee. Each is a com munity booster, and an enthusiastic advocate of the modern and pro gressive plan of farming and farm marketing. Club* Behind Program This good cause also has the united and aggressive support of the Lyons Booster Club and the Vidalia Ki wanis Club, the two major and live wire civic organizations of the coun ty; and of the Ladies’ County Co-op erative Club, which is particularly and actively concerned in the splen did work that is being done through out the community by the county home demonstration agent, Mrs. L. V. Thorpe, one of the many efficient women engaged in this line of con structive work in Georgia. Mrs. Thorpe has been engaged in this work in Toombs County since 1922, and at the present time she has 15 women’s and girls’ clubs in active opertaion. Os the member ship of these clubs 205 are school girls, who are receiving special in struction from Mrs. Thorpe in home economics, sewing, canning, cook ing, poultry-raising, etc., and in all of her work among the housewives and in the schools of the county the demonstration agent places particul ar emphasis upon dietetics and rural sanitation. This year her poultry club girls deceived 400 baby chicks as a gift from the Vidalia Kiwanis Club. These chickens were distributed as nearly as possible on the basis of 24 to the girl, with the understand ing that after the annual Toombs County Fair, held during October, each recipient must return two of the adult fowls to the donor organi zation, these to be again distributed among other girls, who did not par ticipate in the initial distributon. All losses are to be paid for by the girls, the money going to a fund with which to buy eggs for setting and from which to raise new stock for club members. Another Cash Crop Mrs. Thorpe also in instrumental in finding a cash market for needle work and other products of her club members; and this year she held a series of five local community fairs for her club girls and women, the best exhibits at each being selected for competitive display at the major county fair. Altogether, the work of improving the rural status, financially and soc ially, in Toombs Co. is in splendid i condition and making commendable progress. The county has a system of good roads well above the average of Georgia counties; good schools, ur ban and rural; good churches, well supported and patronized. The fact that this year it produc ed only a little more than 4,000 bales of cotton as against 8,200 bales last year—although the cotton acreage was greater by something like 30 per ■ cent this year than it was in 1922 I does not weigh against the general hopefulness of the outlook here. In fact, the progressive and ; thoughtful citizens of the county ,in general, viewing the matter from the standpoint of ultimate results and the future prosperity, develop ment and happiness of the commu j nity, consider the cotton failure of this year a beneficence rather than a calamity! \ A Good Thing—Dont’ Mil* It Send your name and address plain ly written together with 5 cents (and this slip) to Chamberlain Med icine Co., Des Moines, lowa, and re ceive in return a trial package con taining Chamberlain’s Cough Reme dy for coughs, colds, crop; Cham berlain’s Stomach and Liver Tablets for indigestion, gassy pains that crowd the heart, biliousness and con stipation ; Chamberlain’s- Salve for burns, scalds, wounds, piles, etc. Don’t miss it. • Hall’s Catarrh Medicine Those who are in a “run down” con dition will notice that Catarrh bothers them much more than when they are in good health. This fact proves that while Catarrh Is a local disease. It is greatlv influenced by constitutional conditions. HALL’S CATARRH MEDICINE is a Tonic and Blood Puri fier, and acts through the blood upor the mucous surfaces of the body, thus reducing the inflammation and restor ing normal conditions. All druggists. Circulars free. F. J. Cheney & Co., Toledo, Ohio.