GEORGIA.
Members of Georgia commission.—Governor J.M. Terrell, ex officio chairman; O.B. Stevens, commissioner of agriculture; Col. Dudley M. Hughes, commissioner-general; Glascock Barrett, assistant commissioner-general; Hugh V. Washington, vice-commissioner-general; F. B. Gordon, commissioner; H.H. Tift, commissioner. Advisory board: John M. Egan, Col. P.A. Stovall, E.L. Rainey, I.P. Cocke, Dr. L.H. Chappell, Harry Fisher, Oliver Porter, Dr. J.H. Turner, W.J. Kinkaid, A.H. Shaver, W.J. Neal, Dr. T.H. Baker, McAlpine Thornton, James M. Smith, Dr. J.F. Erwin, H.M. Franklin, E.B. Hook, Col. J.F. De Lacy, W.S. Humphries, John A. Cobb, R.C. McIntosh, James B. Gaston.
Situated on one of the main avenues of the exposition, known as "The Trail," and immediately north of Virginia and opposite Tennessee and Ohio, was a replica of the home of the late Gen. John B. Gordon at Kirkwood, near Atlanta, erected by the Georgia State commission as the official headquarters of Georgia. The building was paid for by a fund raised by public subscription, at an approximate cost of $16,000. The house was furnished entirely with Georgian manufactures. The cost of furnishing the building was approximately $3,000.
Although the appropriation made by the State of Georgia was only $30,000, the amount was largely increased by popular subscription from counties and cities. The $30,000 appropriated by the legislature was designated as a basis for increasing the State's museum.
Owing to the lateness of the date that the work of preparing for the exposition was begun—October, 1903—Georgia did not make so complete and comprehensive an exhibit of her natural, educational, and manufacturing advantages as she would otherwise have made.
In the Forestry, Fish, and Game, Georgia contributed a very fine exhibit, at a cost of $3,500, of which much the larger part was composed of Georgia pine. In this department there was a complete exhibit of naval stores, beginning at the pine tree, showing in detail the different methods of boxing, gathering the crude products, tools used, distillation, turpentine, different grades of resin, and its different by-products. This was donated by the Board of Trade of Savannah, Ga., at an approximate cost of $2,000.
In the Agricultural Building, one of the most interesting exhibits contributed by Georgia was that of the manufacture of the celebrated Georgia cane sirup, which was demonstrated by two negro women serving waffles and sirup from a miniature log cabin. Sirup and cabin and expenses were donated by the Georgia Sirup Growers' Association, and cost approximately $1,700. There was also a complete display of sea-island cotton in bales and types, together with threads and the various cloths manufactured from same, the cost of installation and maintenance being $2,400.
Possibly the most interesting and complete exhibit made by Georgia at the fair was the display of its cotton industry. This consisted of a pyramid containing cotton-seed hulls, meal linters, crude oil, surrounded by commercial packages of meal and hulls, refined oils and lard compounds manufactured from cotton seed. The material and maintenance cost $12,000. An exhibit of cotton products showing in detail cotton seed, cotton on the stalk and in bales, cotton-seed oils, crude and refined, and oil products, lard compounds, food cooked with cotton-seed oils, and cotton-seed hulls and meals for cattle feeding showed some of the many uses to which the cotton plant can be put. The most interesting display in this connection was that of a fountain flowing cotton-seed oil and surrounded by illuminated columns containing manufactured products of oils, such as soaps, etc. This display cost $10,000.
Georgia being to a certain extent a tobacco State, samples of the "weed" indigenous to the State and said to be equal to the very best Cuba and Sumatra tobaccos were shown in the raw leaf and in cases. The exhibit cost approximately $2,900.
In the block immediately adjoining the cotton exhibit were displayed 86 commercial packages of forage grasses donated by farmers throughout the State, valued at $500; an exhibit of the silk industry, valued at $400; wheat, oats, field peas of seventy-odd varieties, rye, rice, barley, flour, bran, peanuts, pecan nuts, corn meal, and all of the varied agricultural exhibits. These were donated by farmers of Georgia. The freight, installation, and care of them was provided by public subscription. The cost of installation, freights, and care, including the proper show cases and glass containers, which belonged to the State museum, was estimated, in addition to the amounts enumerated above, at $12,000. Besides the above items, nearly every city of importance made appropriations to cover expenses of having prepared for distribution books and pamphlets calling the attention of the public to the many advantages of their several localities, at an estimated cost of $10,000.