. The City of Albany and Dougherty County . of the timber by slave labor, the richalluvial soil made enormous products, the slaves increased, the peopleindulged luxury and extravagance; a most ruinous system of agri-culture was practiced by which, in a few years of cultivation, the richsoil was washed from the hillsides into the streams to be carriedto the sea. The only remedy for the evil known was the clearing of newlands that produced abundantly for a few years, when the nakedclay of the hill sides was soon seen, causing the country to be con-tinually denuded of its great agricultural wealt
. The City of Albany and Dougherty County . of the timber by slave labor, the richalluvial soil made enormous products, the slaves increased, the peopleindulged luxury and extravagance; a most ruinous system of agri-culture was practiced by which, in a few years of cultivation, the richsoil was washed from the hillsides into the streams to be carriedto the sea. The only remedy for the evil known was the clearing of newlands that produced abundantly for a few years, when the nakedclay of the hill sides was soon seen, causing the country to be con-tinually denuded of its great agricultural wealth. But a generationhad scarcely passed when the great financial panic of 1 840 cameupon the country and depression followed in the wake of extrava-!»ance and destruction of the virgin soil. At this period of time many of the young and enterprisingfarmers of this section moved to the rich lands of Alabama andMississippi to pursue in the same kind of hilly, rolling country asimilar system of agriculture. Just before this period of time the. PACKING CANTALOUPES. Photo by Holland. of Albany as a center, and including an area of a circle of not less thanone hundred miles in diameter. This section of Georgia, or the largestand best portion of it, when first settled about this time was covered witha luxuriant growth of the best timber, and abounded in all kinds of wildgame to an extent unsurpassed in any portion of the United States. Theland was very level, but sufficiently undulating for drainage. It variedin color, and was all strongly limestone. But the productiveness of theland was most abundant and upon the sea level lime lands it was marvel-ous, and produced in great perfection most of the cereals and fruits ofthe temperate zone. The country was owned mostly by large planters who cultivated Indians had been removed from the southern portion of Georgia and Florida west of the Mississippi river. The attention of a large class of planters and wealthy slave owners was directed to a
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidcityofalbany, bookyear1904
