4 BULLETIN 648, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Brooks County has long been noted for the amount and quality 
of pork produced, much of which has brought a substantial premium 
in the larger markets of this and adjoining States. Until recently, 
practically all the pork was killed and cured on the farms; but a 
packing plant is now in operation in an adjoining county, thus 
proyiding a ready market for live stock on the hoof. 
Brooks County was organized in 1858. The pioneer settlers came 
to this section largely from the older parts of the State early in the 
last century, but it was not until the first railroad, the present 
Atlantic Coast Line, was built, just prior to 1860, that settlement 
was giyen an impetus. The older settlers came largely from northern 
Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia. 
The direction and rate of the deyelopment of the agriculture of 
the county are shown by the census data presented in Table 1. In 
1860, 15.3 per cent of the land area was classed as improved farm 
land, a percentage that increased through each succeeding decade to 
36.9 per cent at the time of the last census. A large part of the county 
is still covered by longleaf pine and other timber. 
Table I. — Census data 
. Brooks Count ij, Ga. 
I860 
1870 
1880 
1890 
1900 
1910 
300 
3*94 
930 
1,176 
1,823 
2,646 
81.1 
18.8 
65.8 
28.0 
83.9 
27.4 
74.6 
33.7 
87.6 
37.4 
85.8 
43.0 
Per cent of land area in improved farm land . 
15.3 
18.4 
23.2 
25.2 
32.7 
36.9 
890 
168 
550 
152 
297 
82 
'209 
70 
158 
59 
106.6 
45.9 
Value of farm land per acre 
S4. 05 
4, 954. 00 
Si. 12 
3, 097. 00 
S3. 79 
1,465.00 
SI. 76 
1,296.00 
$4. 65 
1,219.00 
S14. 60 
2,377.00 
Per cent of farms operated by owners and 
66.2 
14.4 
19.4 
62 9. 
15.7 
21.4 
50.3 
35.9 
13.8 
41.5 
26.6 
Per cent of farms operated by share ten- 
31.9 
657 
856 
14,797 
3,113 
491 
8,196 
4,921 
823 
958 
13,032 
4,596 
956 
1,225 
11,319 
1,916 
1,192 
1,776 
11,170 
961 
1,205 
2. <7o 
14,178 
610 
Number of sheen on farms 
18,629 
62.1 
37.0 
11,087 
28.3 
18.3 
17,243 
18.5 
22.6 
22,766 
19.4 
27.5 
29,885 
16.4 
27.8 
47.210 
17.8 
Number of swine per 100 acres improved 
land 
38.9 
n „ ++ facres 
21, 255 
6,2S8 
23. 027 
173,530 
14,087 
163, 862 
161 
879 
22,161 
9,194 
26,157 
270, 978 
13.225 
122, 775 
111 
565 
6,884 
91,685 
16,096 
7,151 
38, 428 
384,220 
11,299 
104,530 
116 
500 
10.307 
196, 724 
34,065 
Cotton {bales.... 
n facres 
4,406 
3,466 
13,977 
40, 121 
Corn jbushels.. 
223,353 
171,190 
546,760 
9,512 
0ats {bushels'.! 
6,911 
45, 716 
143,120 
279 
- \bushels.. 
1,914 
1,738 
1,900 
14, 775 
Peanuts {busheis::::::: 
365,395 
i 
a It should be borne in mind that in the census returns croppers are treated as farm operators, though in 
realit y they are wage hands receiving their wage in the form of a share of the crop. The numbers of actual 
farms are, "therefore, considerably smaller than given in the table, and the average sizes of farms are cor- 
respondingly larger. Most of the farmers classed as "share tenants "are in reality croppers. There are 
but few share tenants, properly speaking, in Brooks County. 
