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FACTS ABOUT GEORGIA 95
by hand in a year. Then the export trade began to increase
mightily year by year, creating a whole world of industry, and
bringing fabulous prosperity to Georgia planters. The cotton
production of the country at the period of the Civil War was
two and two-thirds million bales. Georgia alone had exceeded
that figure in production in 1911, while the total production of
the country that year was over sixteen million bales. The cotton
crop brings to Georgia for lint and seed from $125,000,000 to
$200,000,000 a year. The price varies with the volume of pro
duction and the market conditions. The average cost of growing
cotton, including fertilizer for forcing the crop, is at least eight
cents a pound. But even with cotton selling at twelve or fourteen
cents, the average Georgia farmer can not become a Croesus,
when he buys his fodder and family food stuffs, especially when
they have been brought from a distance and have accumulated
merchandising as well as freight charges. He has paid dearly
for his lesson, but he has learned it.
Northern farmers settling in Georgia naturally plant more or
less cotton as soon as they learn the way of it. The planting
season is from about March 15 to May i, and it does equally well
on a soil of sandy loam or red clay. It is grown successfully in
GHAZIXG IN ALFALFA IN FEBRUARY IN SOUTH GEORGIA