SOUTHERN HORIZONS 



stowed upon a railroad officer, the editor hailed him a 

 "lifelong pioneer." It is an apt description. 



Jesse Jackson was originally hired to bring in settlers. 

 That definite, businesslike task did not wholly satisfy 

 his ambitions. New friends are good, but old friends 

 are best, so from the beginning he went out of his way 

 to help the farmers already living within the territory 

 of his railway. In so doing he lifted himself by his own 

 bootstraps from immigration agent to agricultural coun- 

 selor and farm ambassador of the entire area. He 

 evolved a new type of constructive service which has 

 been widely copied. His good works for Southern farm- 

 ing have thus multiplied themselves. 



It is an added tribute to him that the chemurgic 

 development of the good, old yellow yam as a source 

 of starch was first urged in Mississippi by his colleague, 

 S. A. Robert, agricultural agent of the Gulf, Mobile, and 

 Ohio Railroad. Recently Jackson himself has been cam- 

 paigning for sweet potatoes. Why he selected this crop 

 and how he has encouraged it, is a model of intelligent 

 farm promotion. 



Jackson's idea sweet potatoes for cattle feedwas 

 especially adapted to farm conditions in Georgia. For 

 three years his road has backed him in this campaign 

 by offering county prizes of one hundred dollars for 

 the biggest yields of this crop per acre. These prizes 

 were paid for tons of potatoes grown by an easier and 

 cheaper way of planting, to demonstrate that small 



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