27 



ized to convert our raw material into yarns and 

 thus double the value, and hence contribute 

 double the amount towards re-establishing the 

 balance of trade in our favor. 



There is water power enough in Georgia alone 

 to manufacture all of the cotton and wool pro- 

 duced in the U. S. The f ollowing are some of 

 the most important, reported by Dr. Geo. Little, 

 State Geologist: 



The Chattahooche river falls 106 feet in 3 miles 

 and gives at Columbus, 30,000 horse power, of 

 which only 850 are used. One of its tributaries, 

 Mulberry creek, affords 387 H. P. 



The Savannah river furnishes the canal at 

 Augusta with 12,000 H. P. One of its tributaries, 

 Briar Creek, gives 515 H. P. 



The Oconee, with its tributaries in Clarke Co,, 

 near Athens, gives over 3,000 H. P. 



The Ocmulgee between the Georgia Railroad 

 and the city of Macon, a distance of fifty miles, 

 affords 36,000 H. P.; and its tributary, Yellow 

 river, 7,000 H. P. 



The Coosawathe, a tributary of the Coosa river, 

 at one point in Gordon county, gives nearly 2,500 



Eight streams furnish at their principal falls, 

 91,302 H. P., of which but little is used, leaving 

 nearly the whole of this vast power to run riot 

 to the sea, murmuring, as it goes, at man's ne- 

 glectful waste of Nature's forces. 



Georgia spins but little more than ten per cent 

 of her cotton. She loses annually $25,000,000 by 

 not spinning the whole. The Cotton States 

 would receive $250,000,000 more for their crop if 

 it was sold as yarn, than they do by selling the 

 raw material. 



We of the South are far behind our Northern 

 and Western brethren in the introduction of 

 labor-saving implements and machinery, and 

 consequently all more dependent upon expen- 

 sive and unreliable human muscle for our farm 

 labor. The difficulties of the Western farmers 

 rest more in the lack of cheap transportation to 

 the sea than in misapplied energy and misdirec- 

 ted labor. They have diversified their farming 

 to the full extent admissible iu their climate. 

 Not so in the South. With a soil and climate 

 susceptible of almost endless diversity of cult- 

 ure and products, her farmers have relied main- 

 ly upon one market product, which in conse- 

 quence of a failure to produce provision crops, 

 is sold without nett profit. 



Georgia and Indiana have nearly the same 

 population. Let us compare their material 

 wealth and see what are the principal items of 

 difference in the wealth ot the two states. Geor- 

 gia had in farms in 1870, 23,647,941 acres. Indiana 

 had 18,120,648 acres. Georgia had on these farms 

 only 6,831,856 acres improved, while Indiana had 

 10,104,270 improved. The Georgia farms were 

 worth in cash $94,559,468 ; while those of Indiana 

 were worth $634,804,189. The crops produced in 

 Georgia were worth $80,390,328 ; in Indiana, $122,- 

 914,302. Hence, on the capital invested in real 

 estate in Georgia, the agricultural products 

 amounted to eigJity-nve per cent., while Indiana 

 made only nineteen per cent, on her capital in- 

 vested in farms. So it appears, Mr. President, 

 that considering only the value of the land an 

 investment in Georgia farms pays more than 

 four times the profit of the same amount in- 

 vested in the famous lands of Indiana. 



Indiana had iu 1870, $52,052,425 invested in man- 

 ufactures which produced new values amount- 

 in,; to $108,617,728, or $2,08 for one dollar in- 

 vested. Georgia had in 1870 au investment of 

 $13,930,125, which produced $31,196,115, or $2,24 to 

 one invested. In view of these facts, why is the 

 average Indiana farmer to-day in a better finan- 

 cial condition than the same class in Georgia? 

 The same source from which we get the basis of 

 the above facts, U. S. Census, 1870, wili to sornd 

 extent explain the fact. 



) Indiana by an investment of $13,061,890 in labor 

 saving farm machinery, which is to some extent 

 a permanent investment, expends in producing 



her $122,914.302 worth of agricultural products, 

 $10.11 1,738 less for labor than Georgia does to 

 produce her $80.390.228 worth. In other words, 

 Indiana pavs only eight per cent, of the value of 

 her agricultural products in wages, while Geor- 

 gia spends twenty-five per cent, of hers in wages. 

 Again, Indiana diversifies her products and de- 

 votes proper attention to raising stock of all 

 kinds, so that the farmer has nothing to buy ex- 

 cept bis sugar, coffee, salt and dry goods. While 

 in Georgia the planter too often depends upon 

 his cotton to buy meat and bread as well as to 

 defray all other expenses of the farm. In every 

 instance the cotton planter who raises his sup- 

 plies and stock on bis farm, is prospering. That 

 is the key to the whole matter.. Make the farm 

 produce firxt its own supplies, and after that as 

 large a surplus as is possible for war/ret. 



Much can be done towards accomplishing re- 

 form in individual practice by wise, j udicious 

 and just state action. 



In this respect we need 



STATE REFORM. 



In order to reach a just understanding of this 

 question, let us consider for a moment what is a 

 state ? It is a political body governed by repre- 

 sentatives; a commonwealth. Under our system 

 the people rule directly through their represen- 

 tatives chosen from small communities and sup- 

 posed to represent the wishes and interests of 

 the voters and tax-payers. In a commonwealth 

 therefore, in which a large majority of the prop- 

 erty owners are engaged in the fundamental 

 food-producing occupation of tilling the soil, it 

 is highly proper for that commonwealth to em- 

 ploy the machinery of its state government to 

 promote this great fundamental interest upon 

 which every business of life depends, directly or 

 indirectly. If the tax payers by the investment 

 of a very small amount in a State Department 

 of Agriculture as a medium of communication 

 between the different sections and individuals 

 for the collection and dissemination of informa- 

 tion, can realize a large saving in their annual 

 expenditures or an increase in their productive 

 power, then the investment is both wise and 

 profitable. 



In what way can the people of a state more 

 wisely direct the energies of their government 

 than in promoting the intelligence and wealth 

 of the citizens. Instead of wasting the peoples' 

 money in the discussion of questions purely 

 political, on the passage of laws, local in their 

 application, and in perpetual tinkering at the 

 Code, let our statesmen study thoroughly the 

 sources of material wealth of the state, the ob- 

 stacles in the way of their development and the 

 means Of increasing the prosperity of the citi- 

 zen. Let them look more to the means of pre- 

 venting crime than to the enactment of laws for 

 its punishment. Let them, by wise and just 

 legislation, so encourage the productive forces 

 of the state, that peace and plenty shall sur- 

 round the citizens and there will be little need 

 of criminal codes. ^ 



There is much that the producers of a com- 

 monwealth can accomplish through the agencies 

 of government which can neither be reached by 

 individual enterprise or by the organized effort 

 of f oluntary associations. 



There must be the prestige of official authori- 

 ty, there must be the feeling of propriety-right 

 on the part of the citizen which each experi- 

 ences towards the state government which he 

 aids in supporting, on which he feels at liberty 

 to call for information, and to which he de- 

 lights to contribute the results of his observa- 

 tion and experience. At the annual expense of 

 one cent to each inhabitant, Georgia has estab- 

 lished a Department of Agriculture which has 

 been annually worth to the commonwealth 

 more than two dollars to each ii habitant, though 

 it has been in operation only two years. r You 

 may naturally ask "how has this been done?" 



The farmers of Georgia purchased during the 



