"Up until the 1950s, cotton was the dominate crop in Bartow County. Due to the innovation of local farmers to adopt a one-variety community, cotton yields increased dramatically in the 1930s and 1940s. As a result, farmers could grow more cotton on less land, which led to the diversification of local farms."
"To give you a snapshot of how much has changed, in the early 1900s Bartow had over 55,000 acres of cotton and a dozen cotton gins. In the 1920s, Bartow had over 147,000 peach trees. By the 1960s, Bartow had as many as 35 Grade A dairies and 65 Grade B dairies."
"Today, we only have one cotton gin, no commercial peach orchards and no dairy farms. However, Bartow still has a $100 million … agricultural industry composed of poultry, livestock, horticulture and row crops. Bartow now has over 23,000 head of beef cattle and is ranked as the sixth largest cattle-producing county in the state of Georgia."
