Newspaper Page Text
Agriculture Is sl2 Million
Business In Houston County
By
Emmet V. Wbelchel, Jr.
Houston County Agent
How important is
agriculture to Houston
County? Our best estimate is
sl2 million farm income last
year This is gross income of
course. Many expenses and
costs must be deducted
before a farmer can count
profit, if one exists.
The sl2 million comes
from about 33,000 acres of
soybeans, 60,000 acres of
peanuts, 15,000 acres of corn,
3,500 acres of cotton, 12,000
acres of wheat, 7,000 acres of
barley, 14 dairies, peaches,
pecans, eggs, watermelons,
and vegetables.
The row crops which
contribute the greatest in
come to Houston farmers are
soybeans and peanuts.
Houston County is one of
the pioneer Georgia Counties
in soybean production. Our
farmers began growing
soybeans before 1940 and
acreage has steadily in
creased. The state as a whole
began to increase acreage
about five years ago.
Soybeans are a crop which
can be planted following
small grain. Houston County
is one of the largest
producers of small grain in
the state. Logically,
therefore, we are one of the
largest soybean counties in
the state. Soybeans, like
grain, can be harvested and
handled mechnaically
without involving much
labor
The size of farms in
Houston County varies from
I*,'
I FARMERS
I GROWERS |
| RANCHERS %J.
■j; A debt consolidation loan can save you a lot of head
|:f aches. It’s just one of the services available to
•I; farmers and their families through the local Land
Bank Association. :j:
| ASK YOUR NEIGHBORS ABOUT US. |
*•3
| Vjjggplr Montezuma, Ga. 31063 |
I lo c n ' T Phone 472-7355
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**•*• • • • .V.V, • .V.V.V.V.’.V.VAV.'.V.V.VANV.'.V.V.V.V'V.VIvXvXvX^X'Wv.***
Southern Crop Dusters
6 Airplanes
Serving Houston County
Call Fort Valley
Collect
825-5445
Jimmy Tennille,
Manager
two to three acres up to
thousands of acres. The
average size farm is 389
acres. According to the 1972
census, our farm size went
down from 451 acres in 1965
Southern Forest Products
Association Doing Much
For Economy And Ecology
By Joe Hlelt
Home Journal Staff Writer
There is a growing concern
in our country over air
pollution, littering of our
national parks and road
sides, over-crowded urban
areas and steadily dwindling
natural resources; all of
which have a negative effect
on our future environment.
One under publicized group
has been laboring for many
years to help insure a future
world fit in which to live.
That group is the timber
growers and harvesters of
the South.
Since 1608 when John
Smith started America’s
first sawmill in Jamestown,
Virginia, forests of the South
have produced over one
trillion board feet of lumber.
By 1909, forest based in
dustries had reached their
but the number of farms
increased.
To be a successful farmer
in modem agriculture a
farmer must have a working
height. More than 5,000
lumber towns were alive in
the South and area lumber
production had reached an
alltime high. Hut the
seemingly inexhaustible
forests were revealing large
bare, ugly scars, where
unwise timber cutting had
left its mark.
Gifford Pinchot then Chief
U.S. Forester, along with
other conservationists,
predicted the extinction of
the southern pine forest by
1930. But progressive
lumbermen reasoned that if
the forests were thinned
instead of being stripped, the
natural overcrowded con
dition would be alleviated,
and as a result the forests
would remain as a per
manent timber supply. The
lumbermen also believed
that the scar areas would be
reseeded naturally by the
remaining trees.
These forest management
theories were put to a test
during the early years of the
20th century and by 1950 the
“Second Forest” was
Two-Thirds Os 6a.
Growing Trees
More than two out of every
three acres of land in
Georgia are growing tree
crops. Practically all of the
forest land is classed as
commercial - capable of
growing trees of commercial
quality, and available for
commercial use. Georgia
has tile largest acreage of
commercial forest land of
any state east of the
Mississippi and second only
to Oregon in total com
mercial forest area.
Each of our 159 counties
luis forest land, ranging
from 97 percent of the area of
Clinch County to 38 percent
of Dooly County. Three
fourths of the suite's 159
counties have more than 50
percent of their area
forested.
In 1961, a Forest Service
survey showed the com
mercial forest area to be
25,772,200 acres. This was an
increase of 21 percent over
the past quarter century.
Most of the increase oc
curred in the Piedmont,
where planting and natural
regeneration have converted
idle and abandoned cropland
to forest. In the ten-year
period, 1953 to 1963, idle and
abandoned cropland was
reduced 41 percent for the
state.
At the present time, a new
survey of Georgia's timber
resources is underway. More
than half of the state has
been surveyed and the job
should be completed and
results published in 1973.
MtlWil JVAY 2S 31 wrj
FARM SAFETY WEEK
PROTECT '"'T
TOIRSEIF^
Q 35
-== to TOE!
knowledge of business and
finance, agronomy, genetics,
chemistry and engineering
Most of our Houston County
farmers have this knowledge
and ability.
mature.
In 1942 the Southern Forest
Products Association helped
launch a tree farms
movement by encouraging
private landowners to plant
trees on a prescribed
standard of growth,
management, and protec
tion. As a result nearly 70
million acres of tree farms
were developed.
As the forests were
restored, wildlife grew
rapidly. Since the tree
farming program began in
1942, the number of deer in
the South has increased over
800 percent, from about
.'!0fl,000 to over 2Vi million.
Managed forests provide
more from a conservation
standpoint than merely
* timber. Managed forests
provide beauty as areas open
to hunting, picnicing,
boating, and fishing. The air
is pure and clean because of
the growing trees absorption
of carbon dioxide and retuns
of oxygen to the air. The
trees also have a cooling and
cleansing effect on the en
vironment.
Forests also do an in
valuable job as far as
preventing soil erosion. j
Picture a hillside without I
any trees to hold the soil.
More than likely it will
be pure red clay or rock. k
Good Things For The ....
Seed. Feed. Fertilizers. Insecticides. Herbicides. Tires. Batteries. Accessories. Tools. These are just a
few of the Rood things available to you from Cold Kist through your Farmers Mutual Exchange. You
Just can’t do better for quality and service. And, of course, when you do business with your FMX,
you share in the profits. So, if you want to do good things for yourself . . . better share in those good
things for the farm from Cold Kist.
GOLD KIST ROUND
HOG FEEDERS
Good Things From The Farm....
We Are Buyers Os Soybeans & Small Grains.
° ,ST
m FARMERS MUTUAL EXCHANGE fTT3
OJIJ Rt 3 Fort Valley, Ga. 31030 Phone 825-3313 & 3314 f) 11
ISfflilßf EQffgn
HOUSTON COUNTY FARMER WE SALUTE YOU!
TRADE A GOOD
TRACTOR FOR
A GREAT ONE.
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'?< .%" ■ V&a»- ■■NPPP ,e mllNP^ 8 ' r
• ■•■?■' v '<- «♦ '^■F-*''•' l <! ! V "
STEP UP TO A FORD 8000 OR 9000.
If your present tractor isn’t getting you through the fields on
time. Find out how easy it is to make short work of big fields
with 105 or 130 horses in Ford Blue.
WE TAKE GOOD USED TRACTORS IN TRADE.
Trade now and we can give you more for your trade-in on a
new Ford 8000 or 9000. You get the power you need for your
big work rush and we get a good used tractor to sell.
YOU’LL NEVER MAKE A BETTER DEAL.
Yes, now is the time to trade up to that extra power you’d
like for your harvest and fall tillage posh. See us today
and take home a great tractor at a great price.
Sign A Contract Now
No Interest Till March 1, 1973
No Payment Till Nov. 15, 1973
S YOUNG FORD TRACTOR
i u.s. 41 South "Where Servite Is A Certainty" 987-1861
PERRY, HOUSTON COUNTY, GEORGIA, 31069, THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1972