It's planting time at Cotton Hall

Rod Bryan is treating the downtown cotton patch next to Cotton Hall with one of the first murals painted to make Colquitt Georgia a mural city in the background. Nowhere else in the USA, or maybe the world, can you find a cotton patch being worked on a downtown street.

Now seeing a cotton patch in Miller County is about like seeing a highrise in Atlanta, but seeing cotton planted, worked and growing in downtown Colquitt is something the city folks might have never seen before.

Looking out the front window of the Miller County Liberal on Main Street, just one-half block off the city square, and seeing the cotton gives us the feeling that we're in the country. One of the first murals painted features a farm family, hooking up a mule to go plow a field, and it is next to the cotton patch and is something else many "young" folks may have never seen.

It looks like a pretty good stand of cotton, and an even better stand of nut grass. A good rain to wet the soil would be nice. The area being planted was a peanut buying point just a couple of years ago. Birdsong Peanut purchased the property and donated it to the Colquitt/ Miller Arts Council.

Rodney Bryan and his son, Rob, who tend the cotton patch planting, said they would use the tractor to do their planting and tending. "The mule and plow are more authentic, but since there are few mules and plows around, the air conditioned cab and tractor will just have to do," they stated.

Both the men are also volunteer firemen. There are not too many people who volunteer to plant crops for the arts and fight fires in the 100º plus heat for the citizens. Cotton pickers will be welcome!