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have depreciated greatly, as it is said they can be worked only by negroes, 
being too sickly for white men to live upon them. They can be converted into 
meadows of the finest quality, and will yield heavy crops of clover, timothy, 
&c., which find a ready market in the West Indies, netting more money than 
rice, and the crops can be gathered by white men before the sickly season sets in. 
Southwestern Georgia is in the tertiary formation, resting on what is called 
bottom limestone, being the great cotton region of the State, and probably as 
good, if not the best, in the whole south. The land is quite level and easily 
worked. Our correspondent says: “A really thrifty farmer in southwestern 
Georgia need buy very little to eat or wear, as he can raise his own meat, corn, 
wheat, cotton, wool, sugar, rice, tea, potatoes, &c., &c. Before the war good 
plantations in this region commanded $20 to $30 per acre, but the average now 
falls below $5 per acre.” Some portions of southwestern Georgia are healthful, 
while others are malarious, and white men especially are liable to disease. 
As has been stated, Georgia is rich in a variety of minerals ; gold, iron, cop- 
per, marble, slate, limestone, &c., abound in all sections of the State. Union, 
Cobb, Cherokee, Forsyth, Milton, Hall, Columbia, Carroll, Merriwether, Butts, 
Bibb, and other counties, report deposits of gold, in some cases very rich, and 
promising large returns under thorough and systematic development, of which 
little has yet been practiced for want of capital and enterprise. The mountain 
ranges are full of iron ore, and the white marble quarries of Cherokee and other 
counties are extensive, while the slate quarries of Polk county are attracting 
attention. Investments of northern capital are being made in mining opera- 
tions, and with fair management must prove remunerative. 
4, Wheat, corn and cotton are the leading products of the State, but the soil and 
climate are capable of producing a great variety of crops. Cotton culture has 
been superseded in many instances by crops of Indian corn and wheat, and 
the indications now favor continued change in that direction. The system of 
farming in Georgia has been ruinous to the lands; the course of cultivation 
having generally been to crop with cotton and corn, until the soil refused to 
produce paying returns of either, when it was rested with small grain. A 
few years of such cultivation completely exhausted the soil, when it was 
turned out to grow up in sedge, briars, &c. Asa matter of course, such farm- 
ing could yield little profit in the long run, and must be superseded by a more 
liberal system, if the planter is to be permanently prosperous. Union county 
grows a great deal of fruit for distillation, and before the revenue laws were en- 
foreed, this business brought more money into the county than all others com- 
bined. Our Jefferson county correspondent says: “Cotton has always been 
a specialty in our county, its production in times past having been so profitable 
that little attention was given to anything else. The average production is 
about two hundred pounds of ginned cotton to the acre, or about five bales to 
the hand; the hands making at the same time sufficient quantity. of provisions 
for the next year. Farmers generally average about $300 to the hand.” From 
Putnam, our correspondent writes : “Those who have planted the most cotton 
have lost the most heavily, while those who planted largely of corn, wheat and 
oats, have made some money. The culture of cotton requires labor from the 
Ist of January to the 25th of December, making it cost from $28 to $32 per 
acre, and yielding on an average $16 to $18 per acre, including tax; while 
the cultivation of corn requires only about six months, including gathering and 
housing, and yielding from $20 to $35 per acre. Wheat and oats require no 
cultivation, and there is no labor except the sowing, reaping ard threshing re- 
quired. The cost of sowing is about $1 50 per acre, and the yield is eight to 
ten bushels without manure, and fifteen to twenty bushels with manure; some- 
times thirty bushels, in favorable seasons.” The average yield of the several 
erops other than cotton, for the year 1866, were as follows: Indian corn, 6.2 
bushels per acre; wheat, 4 bushels ; rye, 4.8 bushels ; oats, 10.7 bushels; bar- 
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