Middle Georgia as Compared with the North and West.
G. N. Barker, Longstreet, Ga.—As one who has been a resident two years in Middle Georgia after ten years residence in the West and Northwest, occupied in stock raising, etc., I may be able to point out a few advantages and differences relative to these parts. What will strike the farmer most on arriving in this section is the total absence of grass meadows or any visible facilities for the pasturing of stock, but curiously enough, an abundance of fairly nutritious hay may be cut during summer, of sufficient nutritive value with the assistance of a little grain for stock. The corn crop is light per acre to one used to the West; oats, however, yield well when well cultivated, and are off the ground in May, the same ground making also a good hay crop the same year. Bermuda grass makes an inexhaustible supply of pasture for all stock, except three winter months when green rye, barley or oats will take its place. Italian rye grass I have found grows luxuriantly during winter and spring, and it makes more milk than almost any herb. Red top grass also succeeds well. During summer there is an abundance of forage crops for all classes of stock, and of good nutritious quality. Stock is healthy here, provided it is kept clean and not overfed with too highly fattening foodstuffs. My health has vastly improved in this climate and I have recovered from the exposures of the Northwest. The land here is poor and run down, but good cultivation and moderate manuring soon restore a fertility that is astonishing to anyone seeing only what is done without fertilizer. The greatest drawbacks in this section are the total inability of the laborer, merchant and business man to comprehend or encourage anything but cotton. All kinds of fruits flourish with good care bestowed upon them.
Farmers coming from other parts will have to either do or closely superintend the minute details of their business; nothing can be left to the colored labor and they have not yet had any practice with the better methods or implements. Lumber is cheap; also carpenters very; to one accustomed to Western prices, so many comforts may be had unattainable out there. The heat is no drawback, not being anything like the maximum attained in North Dakota and Montana, but the summer is long and debilitating to the newcomer, who must use discretion in taking too much sun the first season. Good foundation stock of all kinds can be bought here at moderate prices. Living is very cheap and work not hard, if cotton is let alone, as there is more time all-the-year-round to work than in colder regions. Roads are moderate and railroads numerous, obviating the distances to be traveled out West to and from one’s station and postoffice. As a place of residence for comfort, absence of great atmospheric changes, cheapness of living and land, and other things necessary to the comfort of a farmer, I consider the South has many and varied advantages over the North and West.