Georgia: Its History, Condition and Resources

TROW’S PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY, 205-213 East Twelfth Street, NEW YORK.

GEORGIA.

Georgia, one of the thirteen original States of the American Union, has Tennessee and North Carolina on the N., South Carolina and the Atlantic Ocean on the E., Florida S., and Alabama W. The Savannah river separates the State on the E. from South Carolina; the St. Mary’s, on the S., divides it in part from Florida; the Chattahoochee, on the W., flows between Georgia and Alabama for nearly half its course. Georgia lies between 30° 21′ 39″ and 35° N. lat., and between 81° and 85° 53′ 38″ W. long. It is 320 miles long from N. to S., and 256 miles in its greatest breadth from E. to W., with an area of 58,000 square miles.

_Surface._--Georgia has three distinctly marked zones, varying in soil, climate, and productions. Her sea-coast is similar to that of the Carolinas, being skirted by fertile islands, separated from the mainland by narrow lagoons or by sounds. This section is essentially tropical. Beginning at the sea-coast, a gradually ascending sandy plain extends northward and westward as far as the head of navigation on the Savannah, Ogeechee, Oconee, and Ocmulgee rivers, where it meets a Primary formation. Augusta, Milledgeville, and Macon indicate the northern limit of this tract. Here begins the hilly and finally mountainous region, the most extensive, fertile, and salubrious of the State. A second plateau, 60 or 70 miles broad, stretches above the falls of the rivers until it meets the southernmost ranges of the great Appalachian chain of mountains which traverses Virginia, North Carolina, and northern Georgia under the name of the Blue Ridge, and is finally lost in Alabama. This picturesque district extends in Georgia from Rabun county in the north-east corner of the State to Dade in the extreme north-west, where the summit of Lookout Mountain dominates the valley of the Tennessee. Here are the sources of the two principal rivers of the State; here is the gold-producing region; and here is also the theatre of some of the most sanguinary battles of the civil war. The elevations of the Blue Ridge vary from 1,200 to 4,000 feet. In the south-east of the State is the extensive Okefinokee swamp, which has an estimated circumference of 180 miles, is filled with pools and islands, and is the congenial home of alligators, lizards, and other reptiles.

_Rivers and Harbors._--There are many fine rivers in Georgia. A north and south line passing through Macon would nearly divide the streams flowing into the Atlantic from those discharging into the Gulf of Mexico. The Savannah, Ogeechee, Altamaha, Santilla, and St. Mary’s fall into the Atlantic, and the Chattahoochee, Flint, and tributaries of the Suwanee flow to the Gulf coast. The rivers are generally navigable for steamboats to the falls which occur on the great central plateau of the State--that is to say, the Savannah to Augusta, the Oconee and Ocmulgee (confluents of the Altamaha) to Milledgeville and Macon, and the Chattahoochee to Columbus. Besides their ordinary purposes as avenues of travel and commerce, her rivers have given to Georgia the character of a manufacturing State, and she is developing and increasing their abundant water-powers with energy and success.

The Savannah is formed of two small streams which rise near the North Carolina line, and unite on the boundary between S. Carolina and Georgia in Hart county. Flowing thence in a nearly S.S.E. direction for 450 miles, it enters the Atlantic near 32° N. lat. The Savannah is navigable from November to June. Ships ascend it 18 miles to the city of Savannah, steamboats to Augusta, 230 miles, and by means of a canal around the falls there, constructed in 1845, light draught vessels navigate it 150 miles higher. This canal, 9 miles long, furnishes the water-power of Augusta. The river is here about 300 yards wide. From Augusta the traveller descends the Savannah through the cotton-fields of the table-lands, and the long reaches of semi-tropical vegetation dominated by groves of live oak, to the rich rice plantations of the seaboard.

The Chattahoochee is one of the largest and most interesting rivers of Georgia. It rises on the declivity of the Blue Ridge, in Habersham county, in the N.E. of the State, pursues a devious S.W. course through the gold region of upper Georgia until it reaches West Point, on the Alabama frontier. It then flows nearly south to the Florida State line, where it is joined by the Flint, when the two streams flow on through Florida to the Gulf under the name of the Appalachicola. Large steamboats ascend the Chattahoochee in the season of navigation to Columbus, 350 miles from the Gulf. The whole estimated length of the river is 550 miles. The falls at Columbus create a valuable water-power, constituting that city one of the three important manufacturing centres of the State. Just above Columbus the Chattahoochee is broken in picturesque rapids, overlooked by a rocky cliff called the “Lover’s Leap,” which is the subject of an interesting legend. Besides Columbus, the towns of West Point and Fort Gaines are the most important on the Chattahoochee in Georgia; Appalachicola at its embouchure on the Gulf is its shipping and distributing port, but is decreasing in importance since the railway system of the State has assumed a large share of the traffic once confined to the navigable streams.

The Oconee and Ocmulgee rise near each other, in the N. of the State, flow through its centre to within 100 miles of the sea, when their united streams pass on S. E. to the Atlantic under the name of the Altamaha. Milledgeville, the former capital of Georgia, is on the Oconee, and Macon on the Ocmulgee. Darien on the Altamaha is reached by vessels drawing 11 to 14 feet of water. The Ogeechee, rising also in the north, is about 200 miles long. It drains the country between the Savannah and Altamaha, entering the Atlantic a few miles south of the Savannah. The Ogeechee is navigable for light vessels 30 or 40 miles, and for keel-boats to Louisville. The Santilla and St. Mary’s drain the south-eastern counties, and are each navigable 30 or 40 miles for sloops. The Flint, Ockloconee, and Suwanee drain the south-western counties; the Flint is navigable to Albany, 250 miles from the Gulf, for steamboats. The Tallapoosa and Coosa, head-waters of the Alabama, and the Hiawassee, one of the sources of the Tennessee, rise in the mountains of Georgia--the last, however, finding its way to the Gulf of Mexico by the Ohio and Mississippi valleys.

Georgia has about 128 miles of sea-coast, but has few good harbors, except within the rivers emptying upon it. St. Mary’s, Brunswick, Darien, and Savannah are the principal. The chain of islands lying off the mainland produces the celebrated Sea-island cotton, but owing to the changes brought about by the secession war it is now little cultivated. These islands are flat, and generally little elevated above the sea. Cumberland island, one of the most attractive, is nearly 30 miles long. It is covered with magnificent forests of oak, and its shores are skirted with palms, palmettos, and tropical shrubbery. Other islands from S. to N. are Jykill, St. Simon’s, Sapello, St. Catharine’s, Ossabaw, and Cabbage. The Sea Islands, with the main shore, constitute a coast of 480 miles. St. Andrew’s, St. Simon’s, Altamaha, Doboy, Sapello, St. Catharine’s, and Ossabaw are the principal sounds.

_Climate, Soil, and Productions._--The central and southern portions of Georgia, including the seaboard, are subject to excessive heats in summer. At Savannah, observations show the mean temperature for July to have sometimes reached 99° Fahr. In the northern district of the State the same season is cooler and less enervating. Indeed, the mountain region is becoming noted for its genial and healthful climate, and is attracting invalids and pleasure-seekers from all parts of the Union. In the low marshy lands lying contiguous to or upon the coast, malarious fevers prevail in spring and summer. The belt of country stretching from Augusta across the State to Columbus, having a width of from 30 to 60 miles, is pronounced a very healthy district. At Augusta the mean summer temperature is about 79°, the winter 47°. At Atlanta careful observations give the average of summer heat as 75°, and winter 45°. Diseases of the respiratory organs are rare among natives of northern and central Georgia. The interior is comparatively free from the dreaded epidemics cholera and yellow fever, but Savannah and the coast are periodically scourged by them.

There is in Georgia as great diversity of soil as of climate. Beginning with the Sea Islands, which are composed of a sandy alluvium, intermixed with decomposed coral, we pass from the rich alluvions near the coast, in which the great rice plantations are, to the thinner soil of the Pine Belt, sometimes inaptly denominated Pine Barrens. These are at present valuable for their timber and naval stores, but are susceptible of cultivation. The middle region consists of a red loam, once productive, but from long cultivation impoverished. With the aid of fertilizers it produces cotton, tobacco, and the cereals. We now reach the so-called Cherokee country of the north, containing lands among the most fertile in the State, lands which, notwithstanding their tillage from an unknown period by the aboriginal inhabitants, grow wheat, corn, Irish potatoes, peas, beans, etc., abundantly. Cotton may also be successfully cultivated, but with less advantage than in other districts of the State. This fibre is chiefly produced along the fertile bottom lands or contiguous uplands of the rivers. The same lands yield rice, Indian corn, and sugar. Middle and southwest Georgia are the most productive cotton areas. In the south-west the soil, though light and sandy, produces cotton. In southern Georgia there are millions of acres of magnificent yellow pine forests of great value for house or ship-building, and in these forests turpentine plantations have been opened. The live-oak, also valuable for ship-building purposes, abounds in the south-east of the State. The swamps afford cedar and cypress, the central region oak and hickory. Walnut, chestnut, ash, gum, magnolia, poplar, sycamore, beech, elm, maple, fir, and spruce trees are found in different localities; but in the older settled districts the original forests have disappeared.

It is frequently said that there is nothing grown in any of the States except Florida that Georgia cannot profitably produce. A few of the tropical fruits of Florida cannot be raised in Georgia, but all those of the temperate zone succeed well. Tobacco may be grown in any part of the State, although it is not extensively cultivated for export. Cotton is the great crop of Georgia. She ranks third among the eight cotton States, having exported or consumed in her own manufactures, for the year ending September, 1878, 604,676 bales, worth at the point of export $30,000,000. Of this crop 3,608 bales is classed as Sea-island. Her crop for 1877 was 491,800 bales. The counties of Burke, Dougherty, Lee, Monroe, Stewart, Sumter, and Washington yield 25 per cent. of the whole product of the State.