220
By 1903, Georgia had another problem, which has been characterized as “the
most serious menace that the cotton planters of the South [had] ever been compelled
to face,” as potential losses from a single insect—Anthonomus grandis grandis—
mounted in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
26
The massive, indeed internationally coordinated, efforts to stop the rampaging
boll weevil failed (it migrated over vast territory quickly and could build up seven
generations in a single human year);
27
and in sync with the Great Depression, the
Dust Bowl, and huge applications of arsenic in conjunction with molasses to the
soil, entomologists furiously engaged in an all-out battle with a lovely looking little
personage who persistently both imagined and evoked resistance to whatever chemicals were laid down. “By 1953,” write Haney, Lewis, and Lambert, “there were 3259
brands of economic poisons and application devices from 439 companies registered
under the 1950 Georgia Economic Poisons Act.”
28
As farmers desperately moved,
those that could, from one turf to the next, over seven inches of soil were, on average, lost everywhere that farming families trod. Such was the inferno of poor farming practices and ill-informed zeal bent upon perpetuating the doomed cotton legacy.
Throughout this devastating period, Georgian lumber mills wreaked as much or
more havoc, as commercial sawmills (by the time of the Civil War) were already
consuming “more than 1.6 million board feet per day” of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), as well as vast swaths of the old-growth cypress (three species of the Taxodium
genus in the Cupressaceae cypress family of southeastern American conifers).
29
Before commercial logging had begun, there were an estimated 90 million acres
covered in longleaf pine. Today, less than 3% of these stands remain
30
(Fig. 23.3).
Additional stressors on John Muir’s southeastern paradise were to cumulatively
manifest. Georgia had a population of roughly 1.8 million people when he tramped
around. A century later, by 1970, there were over 4.5 million inhabitants (and 10.5
million+ today), despite many having given up on a rural livelihood in the South,
embarking—those who could—upon the Great Migrations during the first half of
the twentieth century. This exodus resulted in over 6.5 million people fleeing southern areas of America for northern, urban sanctuaries. For African-Americans, prior
to 1964, and Public Law 88–352 (78 Stat. 241)—the Civil Rights Act—a majority
managed to evacuate their perennial nightmare of the South for northern states only
if they had a relative (e.g., an “Auntie”) who could shelter them, or were equipped
26 ibid., p. 10.
27 See Animal Diversity Web, “Anthonomus grandis,” by Ben Thompson, https://animaldiversity.
org/accounts/Anthonomus_grandis/, Accessed April 20, 2019.
28 ibid., p.18.
29 See New Georgia Encyclopedia, “Environmental History of Georgia: Overview,” by Leslie
Edwards, Atlanta, GA, May 25, 2004, https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/geographyenvironment/environmental-history-georgia-overview, Accessed April 20, 2019
30 “Photos Document the Last Remaining Old-Growth Pine Forests of the American South,” by
Jennifer Nalewicki, smithsonian.com, January 19, 2018, Smithsonian, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/photos-capture-longleaf-pine-forests-american-south-180967891/,
Accessed
April 20, 2019.
23 A River Somewhere in Georgia
By 1903, Georgia had another problem, which has been characterized as “the
most serious menace that the cotton planters of the South [had] ever been compelled
to face,” as potential losses from a single insect—Anthonomus grandis grandis—
mounted in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
26
The massive, indeed internationally coordinated, efforts to stop the rampaging
boll weevil failed (it migrated over vast territory quickly and could build up seven
generations in a single human year);
27
and in sync with the Great Depression, the
Dust Bowl, and huge applications of arsenic in conjunction with molasses to the
soil, entomologists furiously engaged in an all-out battle with a lovely looking little
personage who persistently both imagined and evoked resistance to whatever chemicals were laid down. “By 1953,” write Haney, Lewis, and Lambert, “there were 3259
brands of economic poisons and application devices from 439 companies registered
under the 1950 Georgia Economic Poisons Act.”
28
As farmers desperately moved,
those that could, from one turf to the next, over seven inches of soil were, on average, lost everywhere that farming families trod. Such was the inferno of poor farming practices and ill-informed zeal bent upon perpetuating the doomed cotton legacy.
Throughout this devastating period, Georgian lumber mills wreaked as much or
more havoc, as commercial sawmills (by the time of the Civil War) were already
consuming “more than 1.6 million board feet per day” of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), as well as vast swaths of the old-growth cypress (three species of the Taxodium
genus in the Cupressaceae cypress family of southeastern American conifers).
29
Before commercial logging had begun, there were an estimated 90 million acres
covered in longleaf pine. Today, less than 3% of these stands remain
30
(Fig. 23.3).
Additional stressors on John Muir’s southeastern paradise were to cumulatively
manifest. Georgia had a population of roughly 1.8 million people when he tramped
around. A century later, by 1970, there were over 4.5 million inhabitants (and 10.5
million+ today), despite many having given up on a rural livelihood in the South,
embarking—those who could—upon the Great Migrations during the first half of
the twentieth century. This exodus resulted in over 6.5 million people fleeing southern areas of America for northern, urban sanctuaries. For African-Americans, prior
to 1964, and Public Law 88–352 (78 Stat. 241)—the Civil Rights Act—a majority
managed to evacuate their perennial nightmare of the South for northern states only
if they had a relative (e.g., an “Auntie”) who could shelter them, or were equipped
26 ibid., p. 10.
27 See Animal Diversity Web, “Anthonomus grandis,” by Ben Thompson, https://animaldiversity.
org/accounts/Anthonomus_grandis/, Accessed April 20, 2019.
28 ibid., p.18.
29 See New Georgia Encyclopedia, “Environmental History of Georgia: Overview,” by Leslie
Edwards, Atlanta, GA, May 25, 2004, https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/geographyenvironment/environmental-history-georgia-overview, Accessed April 20, 2019
30 “Photos Document the Last Remaining Old-Growth Pine Forests of the American South,” by
Jennifer Nalewicki, smithsonian.com, January 19, 2018, Smithsonian, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/photos-capture-longleaf-pine-forests-american-south-180967891/,
Accessed
April 20, 2019.
23 A River Somewhere in Georgia