History of Georgia Agriculture, 1732-1860
History of Georgia Agriculture, 1732-1860

Author: James C. Bonner

Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Published: 2009-09-01

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 0820335002

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Published in 1964, A History of Georgia Agriculture describes the early land and labor systems in the state. Agriculture came to Georgia with the first settlers and was largely directed toward the economic self-sufficiency of the British Empire. James C. Bonner's portrayal of the colonial cattle industry is prescient of the later open-range West. He also clearly shows how shortages of horses and implements, poor plowing techniques, and a lack of skill in tool mechanics spawned the cotton-slaves-mules trilogy of antebellum agriculture, which in turn led to land exhaustion and eventual emigration. By the 1850s the general southern desire for economic independence promoted diversification and such scientific farming techniques as crop rotation, contour plowing, and fertilization. Planting of pasture forage to improve livestock and hold soil was advocated and the teaching of agriculture in public schools was promoted. Contemporary descriptions of individual farms and plantations are interspersed to give a picture of day to day farming. Bonner presents a picture of the average Southern farmer of 1850 which is neither that of a landless hireling nor of the traditional planter, but of a practical man trying to make a living.

A Century of Georgia Agriculture, 1850-1950
A Century of Georgia Agriculture, 1850-1950

Author: Willard Range

Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Published: 2010-06-01

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 0820335517

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Published in 1954, this survey of Georgia agriculture is chronologically divided into three sections. “The End of the Golden Age, 1850–1865,” describes the last decade of antebellum agriculture before the overthrow of the plantation system. “The Long Depression, 1865–1900,” tells of the search for new ways to restore prosperity to Georgia's struggling agricultural system. And “The Revolutionary New Century, 1900–1950,” illustrates how agriculture underwent rapid development due to mechanization, diversifi cation, and application of scientific methods. Range concludes each section with his interpretations, emphasizing the impossibility of separating politics and culture in an economy based predominantly on agriculture, as much of the south was during this century.

The Takeover
The Takeover

Author: Monica R. Gisolfi

Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Published: 2017-04-15

Total Pages: 124

ISBN-13: 0820349453

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Economists have described the upcountry Georgia poultry industry as the quintessential agribusiness. Following a trajectory from Reconstruction through the Great Depression to the present day, Monica R. Gisolfi shows how the poultry farming model of semivertical integration perfected a number of practices that had first underpinned the cotton-growing crop-lien system, ultimately transforming the poultry industry in ways that drove tens of thousands of farmers off the land and rendered those who remained dependent on large agribusiness firms. Gisolfi argues that the inequalities inherent in the structure of modern poultry farming have led to steep human and environmental costs. Agribusiness firms—many of them descended from the cotton-era South’s furnishing merchants—brought farmers into a system of feed-conversion contracts that placed all production decisions in the hands of the poultry corporations but at least half of the capital risks on the farmers. Along the way, the federal government aided and abetted—sometimes unwittingly—the consolidation of power by poultry firms through direct and indirect subsidies and favorable policies. Drawing on USDA files, oral history, congressional records, and poultry publications, Gisolfi puts a local face on one of the twentieth century’s silent agribusiness revolutions.

Tapping the Pines
Tapping the Pines

Author: Robert B. Outland III

Publisher: LSU Press

Published: 2004-12-01

Total Pages: 493

ISBN-13: 0807165263

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The extraction of raw turpentine and tar from the southern longleaf pine -- along with the manufacture of derivative products such as spirits of turpentine and rosin -- constitutes what was once the largest industry in North Carolina and one of the most important in the South: naval stores production. In a pathbreaking study that seamlessly weaves together business, environmental, labor, and social history, Robert B. Outland III offers the first complete account of this sizable though little-understood sector of the southern economy. Outland traces the South's naval stores industry from its colonial origins to the mid-twentieth century, when it was supplanted by the rising chemicals industry. A horror for workers and a scourge to the Southeast's pine forests, the methods and consequences of this expansive enterprise remained virtually unchanged for more than two centuries. An important part of the timber products trade, naval stores were originally used primarily in shipbuilding and maintenance. Over the course of the nineteenth century, these products came to be used in myriad ways -- including in the manufacture of paint thinner, soap, and a widely popular lamp oil -- and demand soared. In response, North Carolina producers enlarged their operations and expanded throughout the Southeast, especially into Georgia and Florida, but the short-term economic development they initiated ultimately contributed to long-term underdevelopment. Outland vividly describes the primitive harvest and production methods that eventually destroyed the very trees the trade relied upon, forcing operators to relocate every few years. He introduces the many different people involved in the industry, from the wealthy owner to the powerless worker, and explores the reliance on forced labor -- slavery before the Civil War and afterwards debt peonage and convict leasing. He demonstrates how the isolated forest environment created harsh working and living conditions, making the life of a turpentine hand and his family exceedingly difficult. With an exacting attention to detail and exhaustive research, Outland offers not only the first definitive history of the naval stores industry but also a fresh interpretation of the socioeconomic development of the piney woods South. Tapping the Pines is an essential volume for anyone interested in the region.