The Strickland Plan

On a country road outside Atlanta one day in 1945, a well-dressed man stopped his car to watch a farmer and his son laboriously grading a small field with the help of a decrepit old mule. The sight was a common one in the South, and it was not new to Robert Marion Strickland, 50, president of Atlanta's Trust Co. of Georgia (main Coca-Cola bank). But he had just been visiting a well-heeled farmer friend who had cleared and graded a 30,000-acre farm in a short time with heavy machinery. Bob Strickland decided on the spot to bring the benefits of machinery to the 144,000 little fanners in Georgia.

They could not afford to buy such machinery. But if the fees were reasonable, they could rent it. Strickland had his bank advertise for veterans who wanted to go into such a business, granted them loans of $10,000 to $20,000 with which to buy farm equipment. He invited country banks all over the state to join him, offered to underwrite loans up to 50%. The new farm contractors also got the free advice of an agricultural expert Strickland had hired to show them how to do their job and improve the soil while doing it.

Last summer, just as his plan was well under way, Bob Strickland died. But the Trust Co. carried on his program. By last week, in 100 of Georgia's 159 counties, 57 farm contractors (80% of them veterans) were helping farmers grade land, pull stumps, build terraces and ditches, spread fertilizer. Farmers soon found that the contractors could save them time and money. Example: one contractor charged only $150 to clear 20 acres of cut-over woodland in a day, a job that would have taken the farmer weeks.

The Bell Boys. Typical of the new contractors were Troy Preston Bell, 23, and his brother Farris Eugene, 31. Troy Bell, just back from service last year as a 6-17 waist gunner, had never before in his life borrowed more than $25. The Trust Co. lent him $10,000.

The hard-working Bell brothers are still drawing only $25 a week each from their business. But they have $23,000 worth of equipment and enough business on hand to keep them busy for at least six to eight months. They have bought a house and 30 acres of land, and employ two men at $50 a week each (first employe: their father).

Encouraged by the success of contractors like the Bells, the Trust Co. of Georgia took another step to improve Georgia agriculture. This week the bank decided to spend $25,000 a year on a Robert Strickland Memorial Agricultural Fund, to promote better farming.

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