THE FRENCH BROAD RIVER.
Transcriber’s Note: obvious printer’s errors have been repaired.
THE FRENCH BROAD RIVER.
The late Judge William D. Kelley was an intensely practical man, and so not given to rhapsody, but he has left on record that Western North Carolina was the most beautiful country upon which his feet or eyes ever rested. He had visited many lands and gazed upon many transcendent panoramas unrolled by the Master of the Universe. He was a loyal and devoted son of Pennsylvania, and enthusiastically loved and admired her noble scenery, but when he beheld the unrivalled majesty and picturesqueness of Western North Carolina, his honest soul expanded with the prospect, and, in a burst of genuine candor, he declared that never before had he looked upon a region at once so sublime and entrancing. What Judge Kelley uttered has been, by many other enthusiasts, repeated in varying phrase and similar tenor. It is not called the Land of the Sky because of its altitude. There are numerous localities that surpass it in this particular, but rather, I think, because of a peculiar phenomenon of the region, where the azure atmosphere that we call the skies descends, or seems to[2] do so, actually and magically upon the tree tops and mountain sides, so that the dazzled spectator almost instinctively puts forth his hand to grasp the mysterious panoply. When a child of earth is thus moved, as it were, by heaven, with the blue ether glorified by sunlight, and the alpine groups transformed in shape by fugitive clouds, no wonder his mind becomes blissfully inebriated, his soul uplifted, and his senses plumed to take wing from the solid globe that imprisons his feet. The dullest fancy cannot resist the spell.
The ardent, poetic temperament has a conditional foretaste of what it is to escape the flesh envelope and assume spiritual alertness. But it is not always thus that this gorgeous land presents itself. It has moods of tremendous energy, and to make returning mildness more alluring, as the cunning master of music intersperses rude chords in his glorious melody, it veils the comely perfection of its face in a storm of frowns, but only such as triumphant beauty can assume betimes. Then the alpine cliffs are garmented with mist, while the Hyder Ali of Cloud Land poises on the declivities, concentrated with black wrath, before rushing down in fragmentary battalions upon the plains below. But there is no ravage. The little hut of the inhabitant remains unscathed, still emitting from its rough chimney a curling smoke, and the lordly mansion, perched on some aspiring peak, stands steadfast, while the fairy maiden shrined there playfully dabbles her white fingers in the foam of the upper deep. From the dark canopy of the great giant of the Smoky range leaps the live lightning, and a thunder roll bellows or crackles or mutters in a myriad strange defiles, but we know that behind this lowering front, hinting of God’s smile behind the tempest, our winsome Lady of the Sky is laughing still, with the spring in her brilliant eyes, and the wild flowers, smitten by sunshine in her golden hair. Anon, as the seasons are made mutable, another phase is disclosed. The air grows cold as if in the clutch of some Siberian intruder, and feathery flakes pour down their “snow storm of stars,” and the mighty monsters of the mountain world yield placidly to their chill, pallid cerements, but we feel that this is one of our enchanter’s displays of infinite variety, and that our spirits are held in thrall for another transformation. And what a valiant exaltation the chill breath of the ozone-ladened breeze fixes in our blood, and what roses in our cheeks! How we dominate with resistless stride the pedestrian paths, or how we credit the fable of the Centaur, when, in the fervor of environment, we partake of the joy and very existence of the nimble steed we have bestrode adventurously! In other climes and with other surroundings we have felt languor, or dullness, or restive incapacity, but here, with the potent inspiration of the panorama and the atmosphere, our whole being bounds with daring briskness and mastering activity. In the overwhelming sense of powerful forces put in play, we do not ask if life be worth living, but thank God that we are alive and filled with the alchemy of Sky Land. When these agencies react and demand the unbent bow, we lounge, it may be on the porches of the grand hotel, with eyes restful upon Pisgah and the enormous petrifaction of the rat that never budges from its lair. Perchance, with appetite made robust and undeniable, we attack the toothsome repast provided, but ever and anon we glance through the big windows at the splendid pictures beyond, as if we were afraid that some stray expression of the amphitheatre would escape us unaware. We stroll, happy and satisfied, to the piazza, and loll in an easy chair, puffing at pipe or cigar, but never ceasing to confront admiringly the scenes that intoxicated us from the first. The sun has driven its fiery, glowing chariot beyond the vast barrier of loam and basalt, but left a sparkling, glowing, radiant wake behind. The clouds are blushing like traditional brides, and the sorcerer of the sky has grouped them among shining lakes and islands and the watching perspective that this inimitable artist alone can fashion and dissolve. You presently understand how the poet merely revealed what he had seen when Night dropped[3] her crimson mantle and pinned it with a star. And it was no exaggeration when the grim Carlyle bade us witness how Bootes drags his reluctant dogs in a leash of sidereal fire, or how mailed Orion flames his plumes ’mid bright-battalioned planets. As the mystic dusk robes the familiar scenery with a pall, we hear the insect world, if it be the proper season, conversing in a thousand tongues, startled anon by the shrill cry of a night bird, and possibly we wonder if the momentary shadow on the orb of the moon was the vagrant pinion of Minerva’s bird, or the flashing stroke of the eagle, put to flight from his eyry slumber. Then the vision fades, and some drowsy sprite, circling in the atmosphere, infects us with somnolency. We cannot resist it, unless perchance strong coffee or some such insidious decoction has violated, for a time, the blessed ministering of sleep that men, who have betrayed or lost it, would give millions to enjoy. We move to our apartment in amiable indolence, and hardly has our head touched the inviting pillow when we reach that condition wherein, as Lew Wallace says, even the wicked cease to sin. And if we have scientifically and rationally allowed the wholesome air to enter a little at the top and a little at the bottom of our window, what slumber we enjoy, unless we have deliberately assailed and violated every law conducive to repose! We know that while we rest no noxious thing can enter our lungs, but the pure, sweet, invigorating wind from the heights is visiting our whole system and repairing what other atmospheres may have put in peril. What a blessing, after such refreshment, to rise in the earlier morning and prayerfully go to the window for another glance at the wonderland that has made us a willing prisoner to its enticements! We salute the mountains as loyal friends, and they, after a vogue of their own, appear to reciprocate our salute. They, too, appear renovated with the dews of night, and their variegated vestments glitter with adornment. The fascinating curves of the French Broad river cleave the landscape, and the swift, clear tide laves the feet of the giant peaks, whose fertile valleys, smiling it may be with agricultural abundance, betoken that this is a fertile as well as a grand and attractive region. How that fine farm called Tahkeostee projects itself like an immense backbone upon the undulating piedmont, and how you scheme about the happiness of a proprietor who holds the title to such a domain! But you need a nearer view, and, as all manner of vehicles or horses are at disposal, you take an excursion there, crossing the railway track and handsome bridge to emerge upon a firm country road. You look back, and the prospect is brave with splendid hotels, villas of all manner of architecture, and the city of Asheville, which, because chiefly of the tourist travel, is rapidly taking rank with the first cities of the State, by manufacturing, by drainage and by the discovery that all of the pure air on earth cannot make amends for water contamination. And so, with generous, innocent fountain sources everywhere at the bidding of man, Asheville and all Western Carolina have nothing to crave for in the way of physical health and happiness.
VIEWS NEAR ASHEVILLE.
Wooed by the spirit of adventure, you spur your horse higher and higher up the ascent, and find that some rich man has fixed his abode in more or less of grandeur atop the alpine plateau, and you look down upon humbler mountains and far away into the vista, where the locomotive is pushing its path from Henderson, or it may be Hickory Gap. Descending the road you follow along the bright, rippling stream, passing habitations of various kinds, now rude or humble, and now comfortable or charming. At last you reach a spot that the poet Moore would have raved about in undying song, for it is worthy of any singer, who, however tuneful, might well despair of bringing justice to the realm of so much beauty. The dwelling there is not a palace, but evidently the abode of taste and wealth. The garden is what you have dreamed about, when young and addicted to Lalla Rookh. What a wealth of flowers and how artistically displayed! The air is perfumed all about this fairy kingdom and you instinctively look askance for the apparition[4] of Prince Charming, or the Fair One with the Golden Locks. The Prince I have not seen, but the Fair One was visible and, with her guidance, I am permitted, in a luxurious nook, to scan the surrounding glories. There is no other just such site for perfect habitation, for it is at the meeting of the waters, which glisten far below. Here the impetuous French Broad rushes to the embrace of the gentle Swannanoa, and here their mingled tides laughingly and pellucidly hasten to kiss the awaiting and absorbing sea. The mountains are marshalled on dress parade in one mighty ring around this centre of loveliness, and the dream you have fallen voluntarily into is only dissolved, and not unpleasantly, by the matter-of-fact tracks of steel that glisten at the base of the hill, and the snorting or clanging or whistling engine that plunges, with its train, toward the station, which is now, by local significance, well known as the place where our modern Kubla Khan, Mr. George Vanderbilt, must alight to visit the matchless pleasure dome he has decreed on the heights beyond the summer lodge of the Fair One with the Golden Locks, where, in imagination, we are now spectator. It is needless to repeat how much Mr. Vanderbilt has spent or will continue to spend upon what fame heralds as the most complete and magnificent estate owned by any private gentlemen, and one that few royal personages could obtain. Without summing up the oft-repeated and dry statistics of the dimension of his residence, out-houses, stables, barns and acres, it is enough to understand that, after the method of another marvelous man who has metamorphosed St. Augustine, unstinted opulence and modern art have met[5] for material transformation. No amount of money could reproduce the natural splendor of the location, but science and skill and Aladdin’s lamp, which is ready money and a superabundance of it, can rear castles and improve grounds in a way to be worthy of such scenes of Arcadian majesty and beauty all around. It speaks well for the rich young man, who is highly educated, most accomplished, and a lover of literature in all of its development, while kind and gentle and benignant, that he should have determined upon this place of all the places in the world to rear his incomparable home and be a veritable monarch of much that he surveyed, though not all. And yet, having once had vision of this alluring sphere, it would be indeed a source of astonishment if it failed to exercise upon him the sorcery I so feebly portray. The fancy takes flight and pictures to itself what may be the result of such a scheme. Will he, when the palace is completed and everything exhausted to fashion it as he aspired, be any more content than he was before? Will he abandon the mighty Babylon of the East and abide at his gorgeous Southern hermitage, with its imperial setting? Will he simply flit there, from time to time, and, at other seasons, leave his domain, like a haunted palace, a stupendous show-place or proverbial folly? Will he settle there, and perchance wed the Fair One with the Golden Locks, becoming racy of the soil of the Old North State, dispensing joy, hospitality, munificence and rational bounty? Will he, having more than emulated the author of Vathek in construction, live, like Beckford, to behold the ruin of his aspiration? But what is the use of tossing these gilded juggler balls in the air of imagination, and making inquiries of that future which does not belong to any mortal? Suffice it practically, that young Mr. Vanderbilt has appreciated the South, yielded homage to her natural magnetism, and made his deeds speak louder than words of praise. Let us take for granted that he will never weary of his designs and that Providence has in store for him and his surroundings special and exceptional benedictions.
Adjacent to Mr. Vanderbilt’s principality are the grounds of the Kenilworth Inn, which would have delighted Amy Robsart and disarmed her enemies. Never did British beauty of any country preceding this command, even at the hands of royalty, so many comforts as the Kenilworth lavishly displays for the delectation of the most exacting creature. When this is said, what need of multiplying words or measuring with yard-sticks the magnificence of the various compartments of the house or its broad baronial park? Unless you are impervious to all enticement, you will be impelled to see these marvels through your own eyes and then compare your impressions with mine.
Perhaps you who visit Western North Carolina find instinct within you some of the fiery blood of Orion or Nimrod or Buffalo Bill, and wish to exercise it in the slaughter of beasts and birds. Well, with your improved weapon, with all modern lethal devices, in dear old clothes that are already creased in the seams and baggy at the knees, you may, with the rugged father of Esmeralda, or one of her tough, nimble brothers, follow the black bear to his cave or track partridges, grouse or squirrels to their leafy haunts, and make them acquainted with death or anguish. You may, even without having conned the pages of Isaak Walton, be impassioned for snaring diplomatic and pugnacious trout, with an insect engendered by the artificer or with the native minnow; and, if so, your selection of streams will be easy and your game-bag should be bulging with trophies when you homeward wend your way, with appetite of a ploughman for the fare of a French chef who has been beguiled by Col. Coxe as the presiding genius of his kitchen and larder. And the Colonel will, after supper, make merry with you, as becomes an elegant gentleman, who has carried his accomplishments all over the world, and who laughingly declares that he is “the only man extant who was killed on both sides during the war.” He had possessions at the North and South, and his[6] respective substitutes were among the unreturning brave. So, by proxy, he was slain twice, and yet is still alive to the gratification of a host of friends and admirers. You will be sure to get an invitation from him to drive, with a jocund company of both sexes, in his tally-ho-coach, which is as well appointed as any in the land, and it is a memorable thing to see him handle the ribbons over four thoroughbreds that were nurtured on bluest and most succulent of Kentucky grass. A drive with Colonel Coxe and such ladies and gentlemen as he groups around him is an experience that you will fondle, some day, when business or a kindred commonplace tie fetters you to a dull or smoky town. You will then comprehend that poor girl, a rustic heroine and living martyr, when she could forgive the miserable man who had repaid her with ingratitude and desertion, but could not divine how, though he left her, he could leave “The Mountings.”
MOUNT MITCHELL—6700 FEET ABOVE THE SEA.
In a rollicking mood you may venture to pay a pop-call on Bill Nye, who, though he pokes perfunctory, periodical fun at the Sky Land, clings to it, when he can, like a fellow does to his skin, and, in serious interludes, loves even its occasionally disreputable roads, which are, at any rate, picturesque and informal. He may escort you to a friend’s place of concealment, the den of “the chemist,” the alchemist of moonshine whiskey, warranted, no doubt, to kill at three hundred yards. I have always pitied these proscribed brethren, the victims of our internal, or what no less a person than Thomas Jefferson is credited with denominating “infernal” law. The moonshiner naturally has as much right to boil his fruit or grain into spirits as the farmer has to put hominy hot in the caldron, but the law places a negative upon his claim, and fosters and pampers the trusts that so much trouble the Democratic conscience, but are ingeniously utilized to pay pensions or run the government. So the mountain chemist is given to hiding and, at times, when hunted too persistently, to shooting his pursuers. This is all wrong, because unlawful, but it is hard to instruct the grey matter of his brain on such subjects. It is grewsome to see these lank, leathery, unkempt, semi-barbarous[7] brethren brought into court with manacles on their limbs and summarily consigned to doleful exile in distant dungeons. You will, when you see them and their wives and their progeny, wonder how such a country can produce such specimens of humanity, but it is easily understood when explanation is at hand. In that region are reared the best of cattle, sheep, poultry and fruits, but the moonshiner disdains them. He prefers, or habit and poverty compel him to prefer, soggy, hot biscuit, excessive coffee, cadaverous, greasy bacon, assassinated in a frying pan. He drinks too much of his own fiery decoction and too little of the salubrious water that leaps, gushes and sparkles on every hand. If one could capture young moonshiner girls and boys, feed them on civilized diet, girdle them with proper comfort, garment them decently, treat them amiably and educate them wholesomely, the transformation would be thorough, startling and supreme. It would be an object lesson conveying its own moral, and this would be the evolution of many Esmeraldas off the mimic stage, and many a sturdy, comely, valiant, intellectual man, who might succeed in the Senate such typical Carolinians as Vance and Ransom.
Speaking of Vance, if you loitered in Sky Land, in midsummer, you might make your way to Gombroon, his highland roost, and be sure of an old-fashioned welcome. No man has a heartier nature and no man is more of an adorer, so to speak, of Western North Carolina. He would tell you characteristic anecdotes of his wonderful career and hold you, as the ancient mariner did the wedding guests, with wit and wisdom, such as Master Coleridge never “dreamt of in his philosophy.” So you would understand from him what potent possibilities this clime possesses, and how from the very elements there is distilled a subtle essence that holds in solution the formation of noble men and beautiful women.
If, for instance, you had an agreeable, harmonious company of friends and acquaintances at Battery Park Hotel, and longed for an ideal trip, not too long, and which would entertainingly add to your stock of enchantment, I doubt not that Mr. McKissick, who is young and genial and intelligent, as becomes a cavalier South Carolinian and manager of a great caravanserai, would suggest a trip to the Hot Springs, which, by rail, is not many miles away. If you could prevail upon McKissick to join your party, it would be an accentuated treat, for he has been an ardent, expert, accomplished newspaper man, and is bubbling over with high health and fresh humor. This maroon is altogether delicious. From the car window you get rapid but incessantly changing views of the French Broad, which, crossed and recrossed and paralleled, is never out of sight. It is mild and clear flowing; it is turbulent, swift and vocal; it is free from impediment; it is vexed with rapids and frustrated with boulders as if a battle of Titans had been contested to stormy demolition; it is always charming. The time consumed in the passage has never for an instant tormented you, and even the most voluble talker is content to let his tongue “keep Sunday”—as an old darkey said—in the presence of this water course which descends in glory through the mountain defiles. These mountains enclose you, but they are not like their Swiss family bare and bleak and tawny, but lush with emerald foliage or cultivated to their very brows. The Mountain Park Hotel at Hot Springs, like all first-class establishments hereabout, is equipped sumptuously. It has miles of piazzas. It nestles in a happy valley. The river runs hard by, and, at this point, is narrow but energetic. It is a cold stream, but here, a few feet from the surface, hot fountains are latent, and any positive disturbance of the earth-crust is followed by vaporous exhalations. The baths are seductive, the more so, perhaps, because you are immersed in dazzling marble tanks and the liquid purrs you like velvet in motion. You can drink vast quantities of this fluid for it has amazing lightness and makes a delicate stomach feel “like a gentleman.” Wondrous tales are told of its curative faculties, and I take for granted that a rheumatic or dyspeptic man or woman[8] soon gets ashamed, in such ablution and bibulation, of racking muscles and azure imps. By what volcanic agency this phenomenon occurs we can only conjecture. The probability is that the central fires are nearer than usual to the surface, or that the boiling waters that can ordinarily be reached by hard, pertinacious mining toil, thousands of feet deep, find here some propulsion and channel of their own and need only a touch to make them disclose their virtues. If they do not “create a spirit under the ribs of death,” they spur on an appetite that may have lost all zest, and when a man is impatient for his meals and partakes of them with satisfaction, disease has small hold upon him.
THE SWANNANOA.
One of the weird sights of this region is a mountain fire. On a dark night such conflagrations are, of course, more spectacular, and when belts of flame cover large areas and are detached[9] fiercely from one another, the resemblance to Kilauea, the burning lake of the Sandwich Island, is startling. In these days of Hawaiian perturbation and discussion one could easily imagine that he was in the Eden Isle of the Pacific ocean, and might look for dusky maidens darting by on horseback with red hybiscus flowers blushing in their lustrous black hair.
This enchanted region is reached by the Richmond & Danville railroad, whose lines furnish approach also to many other places in the alpine location of South Carolina and Georgia that merit equal attention with these scenes so imperfectly described or sketched from memory. Cæsar’s Head, near Greenville, is a genuine curiosity, and even the old European or Rocky Mountain traveller admits that the prospect from this precipitous elevation is awesome and inspirational. At the old town of Clarksville, in North Georgia, the scenery is transcendent. Once you have seen Mount Yonah you will never forget it, and when will ever fade from your recollection the prodigious carving, by witchery in distant perspective, of the Cherokee chief stretched gigantically upon his sky-line bier? From the porches of Roseneath villa you best discern this strange conformation. There he extends, in tremendous dimensions, graven on the horizon, a distinct and spectral Indian shape, with drooping plumes. The people thereabout know him familiarly as Skiahjagustah. You may, in quest of gold, for the region is full of it, seek to penetrate this mysterious personage, but he will vanish as you approach him, transformed to common rock and tree and shrub, and yet reappear by enchantment when you go back to Roseneath and summon him from beyond the Soquee river. Here asthma has no clutch and rheumatism ceases to torment. A German workman came here crippled from New Jersey, and presently grew perfectly well in this climate. He is busily at work in wood and iron in a shop of his own, and happy in possession of a little farm, which has a famous vineyard like unto those which gem the banks of the Rhine or Moselle.
Just beyond Clarksville is one of the most beautiful valleys in all this world—the Vale of Nacoochee—with Yonah dominating the fertile plain, and the upper Chattahoochee river purling around it. Here the mound builders of the continent had cherished habitation, and here they left monumental signs of their existence. Here the Cherokee loved to dwell, and just on the banks of the river and circumjacent to the mound, where clover and corn attain exceptional proportions, is a cemetery fat with Indian death. From Clarksville to Toccoa and Tallulah Falls is a mere jaunt of an hour or so. But why attempt to portray the graceful cascade and the terrible torrent? Ben Perley Poore, who had roamed in many lands and had adoration of all sights of nature of a high and exceptional kind, once told me that after all of his wanderings the scenes that lingered longest and fondest in his memory were those around Clarksville and Tallulah. Oh, you must see for yourself the unrivalled Georgia waterfall, with its tremendous chasm and precipitous descent, not in one roar of waters, but by successive leaps and bounds and plunges, alternately divided in swirling pools before dashing headlong down to the palpitating plain. Each fall is distinct in itself and of varied fury, as you will perceive either from the brink of the abyss or in touch with the vital torrent. This, too, is the Sky Land—glorious land—and here, in the coming time, as elsewhere in the alpine region of the South, many thousands will come ecstatically. St. Augustine waited long for a Flagler and Asheville for a Coxe, but they came in the ripeness of time and amazingly well did they perform the work appointed for them. If some men like these should, in their opulence, propose to magnify Clarksville, Nacoochee and Tallulah, what new splendors will come to the Land of the Sky, and what blessings will be lavished upon thousands of human beings who only need to know the South to love it, and who are beckoned back to health and strength and happiness where
In order to understand and appreciate the progress made by the South during the last ten years it is necessary to know something of its condition prior to the war and immediately after that disastrous struggle. “The New South,” a term which is so popular everywhere except in the South, is supposed to represent a country of different ideas and different business methods from those which prevailed in the old ante-bellum days. The origin of the term has been a subject of much discussion, but the writer has rarely seen it ascribed to what he believes to have been the first use of it. During the war the harbor and town of Port Royal, S. C., were in the possession of the Northern forces, and while they were stationed there a paper called “The New South” was established by Mr. Adam Badeau, who was afterwards General Grant’s secretary. This was probably the first time that the term was applied to the Southern States. Its use now, as intended to convey the meaning that the progress of the South of late years is something entirely new and foreign to this section, something which has been brought about by an infusion of outside energy and money is wholly unjust to the South of the past and present. It needs but little investigation to show that prior to the war the South was fully abreast of the times in all business interests, and that the wonderful industrial growth which it has made since 1880 has been mainly due to Southern men and Southern money. The South heartily welcomes the investment of outside capital and the immigration of all good people, regardless of their political predilections, but it insists that it shall receive from the world the measure of credit to which it is entitled for the accomplishments of its own people. In the rehabilitation of the South after the war Southern men led the way. Out of the darkness that enveloped this section until 1876 they blazed the path to prosperity. They built cotton mills and iron furnaces and demonstrated the profitableness of these enterprises. Southern men founded and built up Birmingham, which first opened the eyes of the world to the marvellous mineral resources of that section, and to Southern men is due the wonderful progress of Atlanta, one of the busiest and most thriving cities in the United States. When the people of the South had done this then Northern capitalists, seeing the opportunities for money-making, turned their attention to that favored land.
The Southern people do not lack in energy or enterprise, nor did they prior to 1860. Since the formation of this government they have demonstrated in every line of action, in political life, on the battlefield, in literature, in science and in great business undertakings, that in any sphere of life they are the peers of the most progressive men in the world. From the settlement of the colonies until 1860 the business record proves this. After 1865 the conditions had been so completely changed that the masses lacked opportunity, and to that alone was due their seeming want of energy. The population was largely in excess of the number required to do all of the work that was to be done. At least one-half of the whole population was without employment, for the war had destroyed nearly all the manufacturing interests that had been in existence; agriculture was almost the only source of work for the masses. With no consumers for[11] diversified farm products it would have been folly to raise them. Cotton and cotton alone was the only crop for which a ready market could be found, and it was also the only crop which could be mortgaged in advance of raising for the money needed for its cultivation.
The Northern farmer is enterprising. He raises fruits and vegetables and engages in dairying and kindred enterprises because he has a home market for these things. The Southern farmer had none and could not create one. He might deplore his enforced idleness when he saw his family in want, but that would not bring him buyers for his eggs or chickens or fruit when there was no one in his section to consume them. The almost unlimited amount of work for the mechanics and day laborers generally at the North enabled every man to find something to do. In the South there was almost an entire absence of work of this character. Men hung around the village stores because there was no work to be had which would yield them any returns. With the development of manufactures there came a great change. The opportunity for work had come, and the way in which the people who had hitherto been idlers rushed to the factories, the furnaces, and wherever employment could be secured demonstrated that they only needed the chance to prove their energy.
The greatest blessing that industrial activity has brought to the South is that it is daily creating new work for thousands of hitherto idle hands, and creating a home market wherever a furnace or a factory is started for the diversified products of the farm. The latent energy of the people has been stimulated into activity, and the whole South is at work.
But to fully understand the South in its relation to business matters, it is necessary to study its business history before the war had brought about a degree of poverty which has no equal in modern history.
In the early part of this century, and even before then, the South led the country in industrial progress. Iron making became an important industry in Virginia, in the Carolinas and in Georgia, and Richmond, Lynchburg and other cities were noted for the extent and variety of their manufactures. Washington’s father was extensively interested in iron making, and Thomas Jefferson employed a number of his slaves in the manufacture of nails. South Carolina was so imbued with the industrial spirit that, about the beginning of the Revolution, the State government offered liberal premiums to all who would establish iron works. By the census of 1810 the manufactured products of the Carolinas and Georgia exceeded in value and variety those of all New England combined. The South Carolina Railway, from Charleston to Hamburg, built by the people of South Carolina, was the leading engineering accomplishment of its day, not only in this country, but of the world. Greater than this, however, was the road projected by Robert Y. Hayne, of Charleston, to connect Charleston and Cincinnati, and thus make the former city the exporting and importing port for the great West. Unfortunately for the South Hayne was sent to the United States Senate, and the growing sectional bitterness, because of slavery, so completely absorbed his attention that his great railroad undertaking had to be abandoned.
The stimulation given to the cultivation of cotton by the introduction of the gin and the extension of slavery, with the liberal profits in cotton cultivation, as prices ruled high for most of the time from 1800 on to 1840, caused a concentration of capital and energy in planting. But between 1840 and 1850 there were several years of low prices, and attention was once more directed to industrial pursuits. The decade ending with 1860 witnessed a very marked growth in Southern railroad and manufacturing interests, but there was no decline in the steady advance that was making the South one of the richest agricultural sections of the world. During this time railroad building was very actively pushed, and the South constructed 7562 miles of new road, against 4712 by the New England and Middle States combined. In 1850 the South had 2335 miles of railroad, and the New England[12] and Middle States 4798 miles; by 1860 the South had increased its mileage to 9897 miles, a quadrupling of that of 1850, while the New England and Middle States had increased to 9510 miles, or a gain of only about 100 per cent. In 1850 the mileage of the two Northern sections exceeded that of the South by 2463 miles. The conditions were reversed by 1860, and the South then led by 387 miles. In the decade under review the South expended, according to official figures, over $220,000,000 in the extension of its railroads, the great bulk of this having been local capital. This activity was not confined to any one State, but covered the whole South, and every State made a rapid increase in its mileage. In Virginia there was an increase from 515 to 1771 miles; the two Carolinas gained from 537 to 1876 miles; Georgia from 643 to 1404; Florida from 21 to 401; Alabama from 132 to 743; Mississippi from 75 to 872; Louisiana from 79 to 334, and Kentucky from 78 to 569. Neither Texas, Arkansas nor Tennessee had a single mile of railroad in 1850, but in 1860 Tennessee had 1197 miles, showing remarkable activity in construction during the decade, while Texas had 306 miles, and Arkansas 38.
The percentage of increase in population in the South from 1850 to 1860, even including the slaves, was 24 per cent., while in the rest of the country, the gain due largely to immigration, of which the South received none, was 42 per cent. Yet from 1850 to 1860 the South increased its railroad mileage 319 per cent., while in the rest of the country the gain was only 234 per cent. The South had one mile of road in 1860 to every 700 white inhabitants; the other sections all combined had one mile to every 1000 inhabitants. Thus counting the whites only, the South led the country in its railroad mileage per capita, and if the slaves be included, the South still stood on a par with the country at large in per capita railroad mileage.
While devoting great attention to the building of railroads, the South also made rapid progress during the decade ending with 1860 in the development of its diversified manufactures. The census of 1860 shows that in 1850 the flour and meal made by Southern mills was worth $24,773,000, and that by 1860 this had increased to $45,006,000, a gain of $20,000,000, or nearly one-fourth of the gain in the entire country, and a much greater percentage of gain than in the country at large, notwithstanding the enormous immigration into the Western grain-producing States during that period. The South’s sawed and planed lumber product of 1860 was $20,890,000 against $10,900,000 in 1850, this gain of $10,000,000 being largely more than one-third as much as the gain in all other sections combined, although even counting in the slaves the South had less than one-third of the country’s population.
The advance in iron founding was from $2,300,000 in 1850, to $4,100,000 in 1860, a gain of $1,800,000, a very much larger percentage of increase than in the whole country. In the manufacture of steam engines and machinery the gain in all of the country except the South was $15,000,000, while the gain in the South was $4,200,000, the increase in one case being less than 40 per cent, and in the other over 200 per cent. Cotton manufacturing had commenced to attract increased attention, and nearly $12,000,000 were invested in Southern cotton mills. In Georgia especially this industry was thriving, and between 1850 and 1860 the capital so invested in that State nearly doubled. It is true that most of the Southern manufacturing enterprises were comparatively small, but so were those of New England in their early stages. The South’s were blotted out of existence by the war; New England’s were made enormously prosperous, justifying a steady expansion in size, by the same war. In the aggregate, however, the number of Southern factories swelled to very respectable proportions, the total number in 1860 having been 24,590, with an aggregate capital invested of $175,100,000.
A study of the facts which have been presented should convince anyone that the South in its early days gave close attention to manufacturing development,[13] and that while later on the great profits in cotton cultivation caused a concentration of the capital and energy of that section in farming operations, yet, after 1850, there came renewed interest in industrial matters, resulting in an astonishing advance in railroad construction and in manufactures. But this is only a small part of the evidence available to conclusively prove the great energy and enterprise of the six and a half million white people who inhabited the South.
(To be Continued.)
The Southern States of the Union have received only a small proportion of the tide of immigration that has flowed into this country during the last half century, and especially during the last twenty-five years, swelling the population of new commonwealths, causing towns to spring up, like Aladdin’s palace, in a night, and giving to cities a growth phenomenal and marvelous. It is not the purpose of this article to inquire why this has been the case; it is sufficient to state a fact that is indisputable. During the past decade the people of these Southern States have turned their attention seriously to the question of attracting immigration, and thus increasing their industrial importance and utilizing some portion of the immense tracts of land now lying idle. Books and pamphlets descriptive of the climate, soil, products, and resources of the different States have been published, conventions have been held, and agents have been appointed. The results of these efforts are now beginning to be seen. The number of foreign settlers in the South is steadily increasing, and the class of immigrants coming into the section is, generally speaking, a most desirable one. They are men of sufficient intelligence to think and act for themselves, and to leave the beaten paths that have been followed by most of their compatriots.
For a number of years the Irish were the most numerous class of immigrants that came to the South. They settled for the most part in the cities, and, as they have done elsewhere, early exhibited great aptitude for politics, and much inclination for municipal offices. For the most part they were useful and patriotic citizens, taking a deep interest in public affairs and thriving in their various vocations. Then came the Germans, also industrious, and more thrifty than their Celtic predecessors. They also, with few exceptions, became inhabitants of cities. Caring less for the machinery and minutiæ of politics than either Americans or Irish, they devoted a large portion of their leisure time to social relaxation, and to musical and dramatic societies, and taught native as well as foreign born citizens the useful lesson that a moderate use of wine and beer would give much more rational enjoyment than an immoderate use of spirits, and would leave no headache afterwards.
During all this time, extending to some eight or ten years ago, few immigrants coming into the South settled in the country. Some may have realized that “God made the country but man made the town,” but few felt like venturing into what was terra incognita to them, a region where, in their opinion, the negroes were the only people that ploughed, hoed and planted, and where they would be compelled to compete with that class of labor. More is now known about the South, and the fact that white men in that section have for years been working small farms by their own individual labor is now fully recognized, and in Texas and other Southern States citizens of foreign birth have turned their attention to tilling the soil. The tide of immigration no longer spends itself when it reaches the cities.
This fact is especially apparent in the large counties of Mobile and Baldwin in the southern part of the State of Alabama. Some years ago a settlement of Italians was located near Daphne in Baldwin county, close to the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. The colony has thrived and prospered, engaging in fruit and grape culture and agricultural pursuits. A short walk brings its members[15] to the town of Daphne, where they can look out upon a sheet of water thirty miles long and from twelve to fifteen miles wide, which, though not so beautiful as Naples’ famous bay, is still fair to look upon, and glows sometimes with as gorgeous sunsets as those that are reflected by the blue waters of the Mediterranean, while the smoke that rises from its shores is not that of a slumbering volcano threatening devastation and destruction, but of industry and commerce, promising peace, prosperity and happiness.
The success of this colony is attracting other Italians to Baldwin county, and also to its neighbor across the bay, Mobile county. Quite a number have bought lands along the line of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, on a plateau or table land that begins some twenty miles from the city of Mobile, and which extends to the northern limit of the county. This plateau is from 350 to 380 feet above the level of the sea, and from five to ten miles in width. The Italians who have settled on it have cleared their land for cultivation and have built themselves comfortable houses. They are all putting out fruit trees, principally pears and plums, and grape cuttings of various kinds. The pear trees are mostly what are known as “Le Conte” and “Bartlett,” while the grapes are “Delaware,” “Concord,” “Catawba” and some other varieties. They will probably in time turn their attention to winemaking, and can then make use of the “Scuppernong” grape that grows almost wild in the section of country in which they have located and rarely fails to bear abundantly.
These Italians are a very different class of people from those one meets in the purlieus of the fruit quarters or in the slums of large cities. They are mostly from the north of Italy, although some of them hail from Naples and its neighborhood. They are intelligent, industrious, orderly and law-abiding, and they are so polite and cheery in their manners and demeanor that it is a pleasure to meet them. They seem to regard people of property and position, near whose places they reside, in the light of friends and advisers, entitled to deference and respect. Many good people in this country have formed their ideas of Italians from what they have read of the lazzaroni of Naples or the vendetta-loving inhabitants of Sicily. Others have an undefined notion, gathered from operas and melodramas, that most Italians who are not proprietors of hand-organs and monkeys wear either red nightcaps and striped shirts or tall hats shaped like the old time sugar-loaf, jackets or coats with metal buttons and short coat tails, and leggins composed to a large extent of particolored ribbons. This costume they accentuate with a sash or belt containing a stiletto and a pair of villainous looking horsepistols, and an old-fashioned muzzle-loading gun with a crooked stock. These simple folks would be much surprised if they could see the sons of Italy who have brought their lares and penates to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. They dress as the average American citizen dresses and the only vendettas that they swear are against those birds and animals that injure their crops. Their hope is soon to sit under their own vine and fig-tree in a land truly flowing with milk and honey, and to make their lives bright with the light-hearted gaiety and peaceful content that made existence pleasant even amidst the exactions and privations of sunny, but overtaxed and overcrowded Italy. Already the sounds of music are borne on the evening air as these pioneers in a great movement of their race rest at the close of day from their labors, and rejoice over their freedom from heavy burdens, and in that feeling of independence that the ownership of land gives to foreigners of small or moderate means.
These settlers can truly be regarded as to the advance guard of a race movement that will eventually make of Southern Alabama, Southern Mississippi and a portion of Western Florida an American Italy. The coming of Italians to Alabama can no longer be considered as an experiment. As has been previously stated, the settlement in Baldwin county was made some six or eight years ago. These people can live on less than either Americans or negroes,[16] for they have been accustomed to the strictest economy at home. The great fault of the colored race, and to a large extend of their white employers in the South, is wastefulness. When negroes can make a living on land in the section of country under consideration, Italians will surely be able to do so. They have the utmost confidence in their ability to do so. The negro is not satisfied unless he has meat to eat every day in the year. The workers on farms and in orchards and vineyards in Italy are accustomed to live on bread, fruit and vegetables for weeks at a time. Their repasts often consist of a piece of bread and a bunch of grapes, or a piece of bread and an onion.
That this class of immigrants will greatly benefit the section to which it has been attracted, to use a Gallicism, goes without saying. They will make good citizens, for they would not seek rural life if they were the adherents of any special political propaganda. Experience has fully demonstrated the fact that all foreigners holding extreme opinions in regard to government and social order that come to this country, Russian Nihilists, German Socialists, French Anarchists, Irish Dynamiters, and Italian Red Republicans, make their homes in cities, and generally in large ones. The quiet of country life is distasteful to them. They must live in the midst of agitation and turmoil, and constantly attend gatherings where they deliver or listen to incendiary or socialistic harangues, or existence becomes almost unendurable to them. These settlers in South Alabama, on the contrary, are well satisfied with the institutions of the country to which they have come in search of homes, appreciate the safety and security that are caused by the supremacy of law and order, and look forward to prosperous and happy lives in a land where war is unknown, where the balance of power does not trouble the souls of statesmen, and where no immense armaments are maintained by imposing heavy and grievous burdens on the people. They have come to stay, and many will follow in their footsteps. The region to which they have betaken themselves has for years been a market garden for the West. It will now also become an orchard and a vineyard. We are living in an age of progress, and wonderful changes and developments are ahead of us.
[The letters published in this issue form the sixth instalment in the series commenced in the October number of this magazine. These communications are published in response to numerous inquiries from Northern people who desire to know more about agricultural conditions in the South, and what is being accomplished by settlers from other sections of the country. These letters were written by practical farmers and fruit-growers, chiefly Northern and Western people who have made their homes in the South. The actual experiences of these settlers, as set forth in these letters, are both interesting and instructive to those whose minds are turned Southward.—Editor.]
Charles T. Smith, Concord, Ga.—Concord is located in the fruit belt of Middle Georgia. The country is slightly rolling and well watered. The soil is productive and can easily be brought to a very high state of fertility. For years cotton has been the staple crop, but King Cotton has a powerful rival now in peaches and grapes. Fruit-growing was introduced into Middle Georgia about twelve years ago. The first plantings were small and there were many scoffers. The industry proved to be very remunerative, and each year showed an increased acreage until fruit farms of 100 to 500 acres are now not uncommon, and hundreds of carloads of grapes and peaches are shipped annually and are known far and wide for their superior quality. Georgia grapes and peaches bring a higher price in all the leading markets than the same fruits from any other State in the Union, and with each season their popularity is increased.
The future outlook is very encouraging. The prices to be obtained now are not so large as heretofore, but with increased production came better methods of growing and hauling and better shipping facilities, and the profits to be derived are much the same, and far more satisfactory than any other crops that can be grown. This industry has been largely fostered by Northern men, who have always been with the foremost in progress. Their efforts have been crowned with success, and they may now look with pleasure not only on the handsome properties they have amassed but also on this splendid new industry in the development of which they have been pioneers.
L. S. Packard, Pine Bluff, Moore county, N. C., formerly of Warrensburg, N. Y.—Few persons realize from passing through the South what the soil is capable of producing under careful cultivation. After a stay of several years among Southern people I have learned much about them and their modes of work, the care the lands ought to have and the yields that can be expected under good cultivation. I give in brief my observations:
Southern men and women are justly entitled to the credit they get for being the most hospitable people in the United States. The majority of them live easy, enjoy life and are contented to go forward in the quiet ways of their fathers. Some, however, are branching out, learning to make money and are accumulating fortunes on the farms and in the factories. It is the general belief of the Northern people that Southern people cannot succeed.
To show an instance where a Southern born man has succeeded I shall confine my article to one man and to one farm, and[18] in my future letters give the names of Northern men who have come South. Within a mile of the Seaboard Air Line in the county of Clark and State of Georgia, Mr. John Smith has a farm of several hundred acres. He started with small means but has improved, buying more land and stock, building larger barns and better houses each year until he has one of the finest and best equipped and regulated farms in the United States. His grain, clover and grass fields are as fine as any in Pennsylvania or New York. His stock is well kept and creditable in number and quality; they will compare favorably with the best in Ohio, Michigan or any part of the Northwest. His cotton fields are beautiful beyond description. He has every convenience in the way of modern machinery. He has built and equipped a railroad from his farm to Athens, Ga., and has erected a cottonseed oil mill, fertilizer factory and conducts a general mercantile business to supply tenants and employees.
Mr. Smith’s farming operations were enough to convince me that all the soil needed was careful cultivation and constant attention to yield three times the profit of any in the Northern or New England States.
Recently I met Mr. J. T. Patrick, of Southern Pines, N. C., who is a noted worker for Southern development and perhaps one of the best posted men in the South in regard to the developments going on in that section. I spoke to him about Mr. Smith. Mr. Patrick said: “I have seen his farm and it is a credit to Mr. Smith and the South, but there are many more Southerners who are doing as well as he, but I suppose you have not seen their farms. Major R. S. Tucker, of Wake county, Dr. W. R. Capehart, of Bertie county, and thousands of others scattered over the South are owners and managers of as fine farms as you can find in any part of the United States. You Northern people do not get out from the line of railroad to see what our people are doing, and we are generally judged, condemned and sentenced by people who ride through our country at the rate of forty miles an hour on a Pullman palace car and don’t know the difference between a cotton plant and a stalk of buckwheat.”
There is a great deal of truth in what Mr. Patrick said. Northern men who come South to learn ought to come down prepared to stay long enough to go into the country and see the farms and not judge the South from a poorly conducted farm, but from those managed with intelligence.
James M. Dickey, Superintendent National Cemetery, Corinth, Miss.—In 1881 I was a resident of Lamed-Pawnee county, Kansas. From March 1, 1882, to March, 1884, was stationed at Barrancas, Fla., near Pensacola. From April, 1884, to the present time have been a resident of Corinth, Miss.
My observations during this time have been somewhat limited, but in the material progress the agricultural classes have made considerable advance. The old-time theory that cotton was the only crop to be raised with profit has been discarded. Corn, potatoes, tomatoes, strawberries, grapes, fruits, etc., and nearly all classes of products that the truck gardener can raise will find remunerative sale. Climate and healthfulness are exceptionally good. I have not been under the care of a physician during the period of nine years.
Churches are Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian and Christian. Schools of Corinth are public, graded into primary, intermediate, grammar and high school. Seven months, with two months additional of pay school, to such patrons as may elect to send.
The one great and all important question that has been asked of me by visitors to this place is: “How do the people treat you? Are you ostracized from society?” etc. My answer has been, and I have no reason to change it, that a person’s habits and deportment are his or her passport or entree to society. It makes no difference in North Mississippi whether a person came from Georgia or Michigan; the social reception is the same.
The political liberality of the citizens is as good as anywhere. While having their own honest convictions, they[19] respect the convictions of others. My political views are in a minority, but during all this time no one has questioned or impugned my motives or convictions or hindered the rights of suffrage.
G. N. Barker, Longstreet, Ga.—As one who has been a resident two years in Middle Georgia after ten years residence in the West and Northwest, occupied in stock raising, etc., I may be able to point out a few advantages and differences relative to these parts. What will strike the farmer most on arriving in this section is the total absence of grass meadows or any visible facilities for the pasturing of stock, but curiously enough, an abundance of fairly nutritious hay may be cut during summer, of sufficient nutritive value with the assistance of a little grain for stock. The corn crop is light per acre to one used to the West; oats, however, yield well when well cultivated, and are off the ground in May, the same ground making also a good hay crop the same year. Bermuda grass makes an inexhaustible supply of pasture for all stock, except three winter months when green rye, barley or oats will take its place. Italian rye grass I have found grows luxuriantly during winter and spring, and it makes more milk than almost any herb. Red top grass also succeeds well. During summer there is an abundance of forage crops for all classes of stock, and of good nutritious quality. Stock is healthy here, provided it is kept clean and not overfed with too highly fattening foodstuffs. My health has vastly improved in this climate and I have recovered from the exposures of the Northwest. The land here is poor and run down, but good cultivation and moderate manuring soon restore a fertility that is astonishing to anyone seeing only what is done without fertilizer. The greatest drawbacks in this section are the total inability of the laborer, merchant and business man to comprehend or encourage anything but cotton. All kinds of fruits flourish with good care bestowed upon them.
Farmers coming from other parts will have to either do or closely superintend the minute details of their business; nothing can be left to the colored labor and they have not yet had any practice with the better methods or implements. Lumber is cheap; also carpenters very; to one accustomed to Western prices, so many comforts may be had unattainable out there. The heat is no drawback, not being anything like the maximum attained in North Dakota and Montana, but the summer is long and debilitating to the newcomer, who must use discretion in taking too much sun the first season. Good foundation stock of all kinds can be bought here at moderate prices. Living is very cheap and work not hard, if cotton is let alone, as there is more time all-the-year-round to work than in colder regions. Roads are moderate and railroads numerous, obviating the distances to be traveled out West to and from one’s station and postoffice. As a place of residence for comfort, absence of great atmospheric changes, cheapness of living and land, and other things necessary to the comfort of a farmer, I consider the South has many and varied advantages over the North and West.
R. M. Couch, Southern Pines, N. C.—The statement of facts I shall make in this letter will lean to the conservative in all cases, as after a residence of eight years and an extensive correspondence with inquirers after facts, I have learned that the truth is good enough and exaggeration folly. By the advice of my physician I left New Hampshire and located here, and have not been North even on a visit since, and as the climate was the first consideration with me, let me say unqualifiedly that I believe it as near perfect all the year round as can be found in any part of the world. I am confirmed in this conclusion by the testimony of scores who have sought this haven of health after trying such places as Colorado, California, New Mexico, Arizona, and even the South of France and Italy. The healthfulness of this section being established, the next question which confronted me was the[20] means of support, and as we make no claim that this soil (a light sandy loam) is adapted to general farming, we were compelled to look to the fruit industry as the most likely to help us out, and well are we repaid for the venture. It is proved that a dry atmosphere and porous soil produces very fine flavored fruit and that in this climate, also, the fruit “colors” up better and makes a much better appearance than that grown in a colder and less sunny climate. But one strong hold on the fruit industry lies in our geographical position as regards the ripening season, which brings our fruit into market, out of competition with any other section. This fact was proved by our shipments last season.
Within five years there have been planted in this immediate section 1500 acres in fruit, and in order that your readers may have the advantage of direct correspondence with any or all the growers of fruit, I will give the names from memory: C. J. Eaglesfield was the pioneer on a small scale; S. N. Whipple, extensive peach, plum, grape and nut farm; Van Lindly Orchard Co., 350 acres peach, pear, plum and blackberry; Niagara Grape Co., 107 acres in grapes; Southern Pines Fruit-Growing Co., eighty acres in grapes; Benjamin Douglas, Jr., of Orange, N. J.; Tarbell & Carlton, H. P. Bilyeu, Dr. C. W. Weaver, C. D. Tarbell, Thomas Carlton, Fred Oberhouserheur, James H. Murray, S. W. Thomas, Charles H. Thompson, Edwin Newton, Doctors Boynton, Stevens and R. M. Couch, Rev. A. A. Newhall, B. Van Herff, J. T. Wilson, Dr. W. P. Swett, H. P. Stebbins, J. A. Morriss, R. S. Marks, L. S. Johnson, C. C. Mitchell, John Huttonhomer, F. J. Folley, Rev. J. W. Johnston, Mrs. L. A. Raymond, Mrs. Louisa Young, P. Pond, Fred Dixon and others. There were shipped from this point last season 150 tons, being the first bearing year of the oldest vineyards of much size. The bearing vineyards and orchards the coming season will more than double the shipments, and in two years all the vineyard trees mentioned will come to bearing.
The prices in Washington and New York last July were six and seven cents per pound for black grapes, and thirteen and fourteen cents per pound for Delaware and Niagara, and $3.50 to $4.50 per bushel crate for peaches and plums. The demand was as good at the close of the season as at first. Write to Dr. C. W. Weaver, S. N. Whipple, H. P. Bilyeu, C. D. Tarbell, C. B. Mabore for prices obtained for their own shipments. Dr. Weaver realized from three acres of his best Delaware grapes $150 per acre net.
I have thus, in a rambling way, given your readers an idea of the climate and agricultural resources of the sand hills of Moore county, N. C.
Southern Pines is a town eight years old, in the midst of the turpentine region of North Carolina, sixty-eight miles southwest from Raleigh, on the Raleigh & Augusta Railroad (part of the Seaboard Air Line), fifteen hours from New York, and is six hundred feet above sea level, the highest point in the whole turpentine belt. The soil is a sandy loam and has a perfect drainage. Malaria is unknown. The presence of the long-leafed pine in large quantities causes the generation of ozone to such a degree as to make this locality almost a specific for throat and lung difficulties. Many physicians and a large number of the cured and benefited testify to its wonderful effects. The town is filled mainly with Northern people, and has four hotels, a good school, and church services every Sabbath. There are three stores, and railroad, telegraph and express offices. There are many fine residences and a large hotel 300 feet long and four stories is being built with modern improvements.
R. T. Wheeler, Hitchcock, Galveston county, Texas.—I have examined and am very much pleased with your magazine, and particularly the department of agricultural correspondence. This is an exceedingly interesting and important feature, well calculated to accomplish much in the settlement and development of the South. Your journal has a high mission and is on the right road.
Unlike most of your correspondents[21] I am a native of this State, and a lifetime resident of this section, and therefore naturally biased in favor of this country, climate and people, free, however, from any prejudice against any other portion of the country. While I am not in the strict sense a farmer, and have no skilled acquaintance with any branch of horticulture or agriculture, I have had ten years’ practical acquaintance with the cultivation of this soil, and my ten years’ residence at this station, fourteen miles from Galveston City, has given me the opportunity of observing its rapid progress and development within the past five or six years, from a purely stock country, a naked prairie, in which lands were worth not exceeding fifty cents per acre, devoted exclusively to raising ordinary Texas cattle, it requiring at a low estimate ten acres to support one cow of the value of about $6, to a prosperous and independent fruit and truck farming community, having over 150,000 pear trees set to orchard, over 100 acres in strawberries now ripening and ready for market, yielding from $300 to $600 per acre; some 300 acres more in cultivation in general vegetables, a church, good public schools, with an average attendance of over fifty scholars daily, good stores, about twenty artesian wells flowing good, pure, wholesome water in the greatest abundance, from a depth of about 600 feet, nurseries and rose gardens with several hundred varieties of roses now in full bloom in the open air, without a poor man or woman, and not one that is not making a good living, a community whose reputation is co-extensive with horticulture within the States and Canada, whose products are well-known in Chicago and other markets, and whose strawberries have sold as far West as Salt Lake City.
Very much of the wonderful development of this country is due Col. H. M. Stringfellow, who some nine years since introduced the Le Conte and Kiefer pears, and whose orchard, in the language of an ex-governor of Texas, is “simply a world-beater.” Last year, as we all know, was both a drouth and a panic year, and yet on his thirteen-acre orchard Mr. Stringfellow cleared considerably over $5000 on pear fruit alone, and much more on the sale of rooted pear cuttings, these pears being propagated by cuttings. I could write a book about this country and then be in the same trouble as the Queen of Sheba, but I fear that this letter is beyond reasonable length. Notwithstanding this extraordinary development, lands are still comparatively cheap; the best can be had from $20 to $50 per acre.
J. M. Sowle, Dryden, Ark.—I came here from Michigan in June, 1890. Located at a place now called Dryden, just west of Gilkerson on the St. Louis Southwestern Railway, with seventeen families and a few single men; seventy in all. The B. & S. W. Railroad now runs through our town.
Two families returned to stay; three more got lonesome here in the woods and went back expecting to stay, and before they were back two months acknowledged that they were homesick to come back and did come back, as they liked the society here, as well as the fine weather and good health. Everyone here now are here to stay, and most of them have bought land.
We have such nice warm sunshine and weather in the winter. Health best of any place we were ever located. Out of the seventy people in the three years and eight months, have had eight persons sick enough to go to bed. One two-year-old girl died; another three-months-old babe died; she was well at midnight, found dead in bed in the morning; and one woman fifty years old died with consumption, think hereditary, as her father, mother and five brothers and sisters died with the same disease. The three who died are counted in the eight sick, except the babe.
The soil here is good and never fails to raise crops on account of drouth or any other cause. We have raised fifty bushels shelled corn to the acre on our poorest land, and a bushel of potatoes to twenty-four hills, and in fact nearly all kind of crops are extra good. The[22] county is naturally suited to peaches, plums and grapes. General good crops are corn, cotton, wheat, oats, timothy, clover, red top, blue grass, blackberries, raspberries, apples, pears and quince.
Society is good; more church members in proportion to population than any place I ever was in. Laws are enforced here better than any place I ever lived.
This county is a peaceful and safe county to live in, as we have the best of accommodating neighbors, as well as law-abiding citizens.
A. K. Fisher, Abbeville, Ga.—My letter published some time ago in your magazine brought me so many letters of inquiry concerning this section, our mode of farming, cost of getting land ready for cultivation, etc., that it required a long letter to each, and I have been unable to comply. I write this letter now to cover all the ground of inquiries.
Abbeville has about 2000 inhabitants, is county seat of Wilcox county, Ga., is on the Savannah, Americus & Montgomery Railroad, sixty-five miles east of Americus, where the railroad crosses the Ocmulgee river. This river is navigable; Brunswick is near its mouth.
Abbeville has two churches—Methodist and Baptist; Presbyterians also have service there. Schools generally are not as good as in most of Northern States, but are gradually improving; have some teachers from the North.
Heretofore the products from this section have been lumber, spirits turpentine, rosin, cotton, some beef cattle and wool.
A few years ago fortunes were made in a short time in lumber and turpentine business when properly managed, but most of the operators increased their business, bought large tracts of land, borrowed money, etc. Now the prices of those products have declined to or below cost of production, and for the past two years our banks have not been loaning money, so those parties are obliged to sacrifice their lands. Although this section has been settling up rapidly, lands can be bought for less than two years ago.
In past twenty years cotton has declined from twenty to seven cents per pound. When cotton brought from fifteen to twenty cents per pound the cotton planter had all the money he required and raised nothing else for market. As a class they spent their money freely; if more money were required before the crop was made they could readily get advances on cotton crop; now the staple is below cost of production, still many are obliged to grow cotton, as it is the only crop on which they can get advances. To change requires an expenditure for farming implements and machinery for putting in and harvesting the crop, stumps are to be gotten out of the way, etc. To grow fruit requires several years to realize. Most of the planters own large tracts of land, and are anxious to dispose of a part; some are hoping each year the acreage in cotton will be reduced (by many putting their lands in other crops), thereby enhancing the price of cotton and they be benefited. They prefer to grow cotton, having never done anything else. Some who tried hay failed on first trial, as they did not have proper implements, and they exposed it to dews and rain after it was cured or partly so.
The timber in this locality is long leaf pine, excepting along the river, where is abundance of hardwoods, viz: different varieties oak, hickory, ash, gum, cypress and some elm. The pines are not thick on the land; the principal roots go straight down; the surface soil is sandy, intermixed with dark pebbles and clay subsoil. The mode of clearing land is to deaden by girdling the trees, burn the logs and trash on the ground, fence and put in the plough. To one not accustomed to it, this looks very slovenly, but I believe it is the best plan, as in a few years the trees rot and fall to the ground. The trees are no more in the way than the stumps; the dead hearts can much more readily be split into rails or burned than when green. The heart rails will last fifteen years; it costs about $10.00 per thousand to put rails into fences; rails are ten feet long. I am building board fences; lumber costs me at mill $5.00 per thousand feet. There are plenty of[23] mills. I have my posts split from dead hearts and faced with axe; they cost me about three cents each at fence. When the ground is wet a man can dig seventy holes in a day; when dry the clay subsoil becomes very hard and one half above number would be good work.
I have taken stumps from 200 acres land at a cost of about $2.00 per acre; generally would cost from $2.00 to $6.00 per acre, according to length of time land had been cleared. I have not tried dynamite; some have, but cannot state whether it gave satisfactory results; I believe it would, especially in new land. We plant our corn in rows, generally six feet apart and from two to three feet apart in a row, one stalk in a place. At last working of corn we put in one or two rows of peas to every row of corn; the peas and corn mature at same time. When corn is gathered we gather peas enough for seed, then put in the hogs and they fatten from the peas. Some varieties of those peas will remain on the ground all winter and grow the next summer. The pea crop is worth as much as the corn crop.
Corn grown here is worth seventy cents per bushel. From sixty acres I got over 1200 bushels of corn. I used on the sixty acres two tons of phosphate that cost here $16.00 per ton mixed with the manure from four mules and 200 bushels cottonseed worth fifteen cents per bushel. Some make more, some less, according to cultivation and amount of fertilizers used. One of my neighbors for several years past has been making forty bushels of corn to the acre.
From 100 acres in oats I got 2000 bushels; these are rust proof and always in demand for seed; I sold all for sixty cents per bushel. I used no fertilizers under the oats; I generally cut two crops of hay same season from same land after I cut my oats. I plough, harrow and roll the ground in June. I use under the hay guano worth about $6.00 to every acre and get two tons of hay per acre worth here $18.00 per ton. This grass comes spontaneously after the land is cultivated a few years and makes excellent hay. It does not grow North. This year one of my neighbors cut from twelve acres 600 bushels of oats; put no fertilizers under the oats, but had the year previous oats on same land, and after the oats were cut, in June, he planted it in peas; when the peas matured he turned his hogs in; by October the hogs had gathered the peas, then he ploughed under the pea vines and sowed in the oats. This is the most economical way of improving our lands. The crop of peas pays for all the expense. We feed but little corn to our hogs.
Wheat is grown but little in this section. When cotton was worth twenty cents per pound no one would raise wheat, so the mills were either torn or rotted down, but in a short time there will be a mill to grind wheat in the vicinity. There are plenty of mills to grind corn. Nearly all the vegetables grown North do well here, and come into the market much earlier, and many that do not grow there do well here. Cabbage and Irish potatoes do well here, but when planted in spring mature early in summer and do not keep longer than a couple of months; when planted in July they mature in fall and keep tolerably well, but sometimes it is difficult to get a stand of plants in July.
This is about 32° north latitude; peaches, pears, plums, grapes and some varieties of apples do well here, and all begin bearing at much younger age than North; perhaps are not as long-lived, but heretofore no care has been taken of them.
In the woods the grass grows during summer from one to one and one-half feet high, and makes a splendid pasture, especially for six months, commencing in April. The cattle, sheep and hogs are never fed. At this time of the year all are poor, but in May both cattle and sheep are in good order. By having some winter pastures to keep the cattle fat for winter market the beeves would bring fancy prices in the home market. There is plenty of good beef here in summer; in winter our beef comes from the West (cold storage) and costs by the quarter eight cents per pound.
We sow oats from September to February; I pasture mine some in winter, but there are a number of grasses that make here a good winter pasture.[24] Alfalfa is being grown with success in some portions of this State; no doubt would do well here. These cattle, sheep and hogs on the range have never been improved by crossing with improved breeds; the rule has been to leave every tenth male for breeding purposes. By crossing the native ewes with some of the improved breeds, and feeding some on pasturing in winter, lambs could be put into Northern markets much earlier than from the States farther North. These cattle and sheep are all gotten up at a certain time for shearing and marking, when those for market are sold to buyers who ship them to the cities to sell to butchers. Some of the stock is never seen by the owners. The young are marked with the mark of its mother, the fleece of wool tied up and marked, the owner notified, he pays for sheering and gets it. All land not fenced is range and free to all. One might own 1000 head of cattle and not own an acre of land. Hogs live and grow on range but do much better when fed some; those near river get fat from acorns.
Building material is cheap. Kiln-dried and dressed flooring and ceiling from $8.00 to $12.00 per M feet; No. 1 Brick at kiln $5.00 per M.
Butter is worth thirty cents per pound, eggs fifteen cents per dozen, sweet milk ten cents per quart, buttermilk five cents per quart.
A number of parties from Ohio came to this section last February; some bought when they came, others bought this winter; all remained. They say they do not feel the heat any more than in Ohio, as we have more breeze and the nights are pleasant. Sunstrokes are unknown. A few days ago a party from Ohio bought 300 acres of land one and one-half miles from Abbeville, thirty acres of which is cleared, all salable timber cut from the balance, but enough for farm purposes on the land; buildings worth $150; no orchard; 250 acres fair pine lands, fifty acres of but little value, price paid $1600; $1150 cash, $450 in twelve months. The buyer intends going into the dairy business; also fruit and improved stock. Lands can be bought at from $2.00 to $10.00 per acre, according to distance from railway, improvements, etc., and my experience is a better profit can be made farming from an acre here than from an acre in the Northern States, where their lands are valued at from $50.00 to $75.00 per acre. Taxes are about fifty cents on values of $100. Near rivers, ponds, etc., are subject to some fevers. I have lived here for past twelve years; have not had case of fever among my family or hands on the place.
We have no sand flies nor mosquitoes, except near ponds and water courses there are mosquitoes. We are not subject to tornadoes or cyclones as in some parts of the West. Our labor is mixed, mostly negroes. Farm hands are paid from $8.00 to $12.00 per month and rations. A ration consists of four pounds of bacon and one peck meal for six day’s work. Where it is white labor they are boarded in the family of the farmers. The negroes here are strong competitors in many of the trades, especially carpenters, blacksmiths and painters; also masons. Our climate is so mild that it is not necessary for comfort for a house to be plastered or ceiled inside; very few farmers’ houses are; neither is so expensive clothing required as in the North. On the nights of the fifth and sixth instant we had very little ice on shallow water on the ground; those were the coldest nights this winter. I have seen snow a few times in last twelve years; have seen none this winter. Ploughs can run all winter. A few peach trees are in bloom now (February 14th). There are no government or State land to homestead or for sale in this State, but plenty of lands for sale either unimproved or improved. We cultivate too much land here; we should cultivate less and work and fertilize better.
The people are anxious for Northern farmers to come and settle here and will render home seekers any service in their power, furnish them stock to ride or drive and take care of them whilst they are procuring locations, etc. I would not advise anyone without some capital to come; anyone coming should come with the expectation of working for himself and not for others. I notice[25] that the Big Four and St. Louis Railway are selling round-trip tickets to points in Georgia, good for twenty days, for one fare. These tickets are issued for March 8th and April 9th.
It seems strange that farmers of the North will purchase land for farming purposes at $100 or more per acre when in the South there is an abundance of land at from $5 to $25 an acre, from which, acre for acre, a larger revenue can be derived. Because of the variety of products raised in the North no farm of less than forty acres is regarded as sufficiently large to maintain a family.
The tendency in the North is towards larger farms, and many farmers are not satisfied with a farm of less than 160 acres. Make the acreage only forty, and the farm is worth $4000. On twenty acres of land in Florida that can be bought at $25 per acre, one can get a larger annual return in dollars than he can from the $4000 farm in the North.
This statement needs no proof. It is being demonstrated year by year all over the State, and only needs to be understood by the great army of home-seekers of the country to bring such an influx of them as will make Florida one of the most populous portions of the country. Thousands of people in the North want just such homes as are within their reach here. They have not money enough to pay for a satisfactory home at the high prices of the North, but they possess enough property to be able to secure a good home in Florida. If they could only be enlightened as to what awaits them here, they would come in force.—The Citizen, Jacksonville, Fla.
The Savannah Morning News sees cause for favorable comment in the improved methods of the Southern farmer. It says: “Contrasted with the average Southern farm of fifteen years ago, the average Southern farm of today presents a striking object lesson of the New South’s progress. Plows, hoes and other agricultural implements are no longer left in the fields, or without shelter in the barnyards, overnight, or for weeks at a time, according to the whim of the user. Wagons and carts are not left standing, covered with mud, at the most convenient place to drop them. Harnesses are not thrown on a fence, or a peg, or a hitching post, exposed to the weather, until wanted. These things now have their orderly places under shelter and are properly looked after. Rainy days are no longer spent in loafing about the kitchen, but employer and hired man put in the time of the rainy day in the barn mending harness, oiling machinery, tightening wagon bolts, etc.”
All of this goes to show thrift and economy, and partly explains why many a Georgia farmer has surplus funds to loan at interest.
At a meeting of the Georgia State Agricultural Society, held at Brunswick, Ga., February 14, Col. Waddell, the president of the society, said, in an address:
“The condition of the farmers of Georgia is not really understood. The view entertained by the optimist being too rosy, that of the pessimist too depressing. They are nearer out of debt than they have ever been, they have more home-raised supplies than for many years, and they are managing their affairs with more judgment and prudence than ever before. But they experienced the pinching scarcity of money, and some of them are burdened with debts which would have been cancelled but for the shrinkage in the value of their lands and the products[26] of their farms. You who are practical farmers know there is no money in raising cotton at seven or eight cents a pound, and that our only hope of success is in producing every possible article of necessity at home. Fortunately, we are not dependent on the cotton crop, for in variety and diversity of products, and in soil and climate, Georgia produces unequalled advantages, and these advantages are being recognized and utilized more and more every year.”
The tobacco growers have formed an association for mutual benefit and for the promotion of this branch of crop cultivation. It is to be called the Cigar Leaf Tobacco Growers’ Association, and intends publishing a paper in the interests of Texas tobacco.
O. A. Smith, of Willis, is president; H. F. Malone, of Willis, vice-president, and J. F. Irvine, secretary and treasurer. The executive committee is composed of the following: Clark Arnold, of Galveston; J. M. Buckley, of Willis; T. G. Wools, of Hondo; J. H. Bruning, of Galveston; J. J. Strozier, of Willis; C. F. Rhode, of Galveston; O. A. Smith, of Willis, and H. S. Elders, of Willis.
The by-laws of the National Tobacco Growers’ Association, as adopted at Washington, are adopted by this association.
The New York Journal of Commerce, in an article on rice growing in Southwestern Louisiana, says: A couple of years ago the crop was excessive, but the last crop is well sold up, and there is little doubt that the consumption of rice will vastly increase in this country. Scientifically and practically it is one of the best of foods, and the taste for it is growing. Portions of this section of Louisiana are sufficiently watered by natural overflow, but a good deal of it is artificially irrigated. Some of the farmers say that it is a little more work to cultivate rice than wheat or corn, but most of them think it is less; there is no great difference in the cost. The general testimony is that it costs $5 or $6 an acre to cultivate it, exclusive of irrigation, which, as already said, is not always necessary. A dollar for seed, two for cultivation and two for harvesting is the estimate of many farmers, though a few put the cost at a dollar or two more, and some go as high as $10 or $12. Ten barrels in the rough is regarded by many cultivators as a fair average crop, but yields of twelve and fifteen barrels are common. The farmers generally get from $2 to $3 a barrel, and sometimes a little more. A rice cultivator at Lake Author, La., writes: “I can say honestly and positively that a man can make a big fortune in four or five years raising rice.... I know a number of farmers that have for the past three years averaged fifteen barrels per acre, and their net average price per barrel for the three years was $2.85.” These figures give gross receipts of $42.75 per acre.
At the recent annual meeting of the Louisiana State Agricultural Society, F. H. Burnette, the horticulturist of the State Experiment Station at Baton Rouge, read an interesting paper upon Southern fruits.
Prof. Burnette has given much time to the development of the fruit industry of Louisiana, experimenting upon the different varieties of fruit indigenous to the climate, utilizing his knowledge of foreign horticulturing and experimenting at the station. He gave a full report of these experiments. The paper was of especial interest to small fruit growers, dwelling upon the varieties of peach, pear and orange which can be grown with success in Louisiana, and of the new variety of Japanese and Chinese plums and persimmons which he has grown at Baton Rouge with success.
At the same meeting Judge Lewis, of Opelousas, spoke of the cultivation of figs as a marketable crop and one which has never failed of producing remunerative results by close attention to the cultivation of the trees. He also spoke of the preserves made in Opelousas of the rind of the sour orange and also of figs, which are sold in the stores of Opelousas. The fig tree is[27] self-supporting, and as an orchard which produces and supplies itself, being free from climatic influences. He spoke at length upon the possibilities of canning the fruits of Louisiana and shipping them to Northern markets.
The farmers of Sumter county, Georgia, the county in which Americus is located, are more and more abandoning the all cotton business and turning to the growing of fruits.
Mr. J. B. Dubose of Ridge Spring, Edgefield county, S. C., has experimented with great success in the growing of celery. It is claimed that the product of his farm is equal in every way to the best Kalamazoo celery.
The business of truck gardening around Weldon, N. C., has undergone great development in the last year or two. To accommodate this growing industry the Wilmington & Weldon railroad is putting in additional side track facilities.
The State of Georgia has one of the agricultural experiment stations established by the United States Government, which has been in existence about four years. Its purpose is to aid the farmers of the State by experiments in the preparation, fertilization and cultivation of the soil, etc. It is maintained by an annual appropriation of $15,000 by the United States government. The property used for the purposes of the station belongs to the State. This property consists of 130 acres of land with buildings, including dairy, ginnery, greenhouse, tobacco barn, laboratory, etc.
A bulletin of results is published once a quarter and is sent free to any citizen of Georgia engaged in any branch of farming. The station is located at Experiment, near Griffin. Its organization is as follows: R. J. Redding, director; H. C. White, Ph. D., vice-director and chemist; H. N. Starnes, horticulturist; James M. Kimbrough, Agriculturist; H. J. Wing, dairyman.
A number of Germans living near Axtell, Texas, have recently engaged in the apiary business with much success. Mr. L. J. Miller who lives in that neighborhood produced 1187 pounds of honey last year, and 165 pounds of beeswax. The honey brought twelve and a half cents and the wax seventeen and a half cents.
A recent bulletin issued from the Texas Experimental Station gives some interesting comparisons of the four leading crops in the State. The cotton crop of Texas covers 4,520,310 acres, and is worth $69,439,476; the corn crop covers 3,166,353 acres and is worth $28,429,125; the wheat crop covers 442,337 acres and is worth $5,244,303; the sweet potato crop covers 29,928 acres and is worth $1,503,764. According to the above statistics the value of each crop per acre is: Cotton, $15.36; corn, $8.94; wheat, $11.88; sweet potatoes, $50.24. The cost of growing an acre of either is not materially different. Here is a big difference in favor of sweet potatoes.
Mr. Jere Mabry, of Belton, Texas, reports as the result of his work for 1893, on a rented farm of eighty acres, cash receipts aggregating $1,974.91. Besides what he sold he raised, for the most part his food supplies. His total cash expenses were $506.85, leaving $964.06 as the net cash profit of the year’s work.
An intelligent farmer of Rowan county, N. C., said the other day: “The farmers in my county were never better off. They have plenty of corn, wheat, meat and other produce, and many of them have a bale or so of cotton stored away. There is no necessity for the cry of hard times among the farmers of Rowan. True, they have little money, but they do not need it, they have all at home that they can consume. Why, many of the farmers are raising everything they need on the farm. I know of men who now have plenty of meat who a few years ago did not raise a hog, so you see they are growing wiser and are prospering as all good farmers should. True, a few of Rowan’s farms are mortgaged and badly in debt, but they are generally of that sort that lounge around town in idleness the greater portion of the time and let their[28] crops go, trusting to a mortgage for the next year.”
The “Southern Pines Orchard Co.” purchased in 1890 1200 acres of wooded land near Southern Pines, and 360 acres of this has been cleared and planted as follows: 51,000 peach trees, 5000 pears, 1000 plums, 16,000 blackberry. In that section the peach crop never fails. Last year the new trees bore a few peaches and this year they are expected to bear freely. The president of the company is Mr. J. Van Lindley, of Greensboro, N. C., who is also proprietor of the Pomona Nurseries at Greensboro.
During the last few weeks there has been much activity among the farmers in the vicinity of Oglethorpe, Ga., and from all parts of the county as well. The time has again rolled round when they must plant their crops, and right energetically are they going at this duty. Not near so much fertilizer is being used as in previous years, and the farmers of Macon county, Ga., are reported by the Macon News to be in better condition than in a long time. Nearly all have more than a sufficiency of home-raised meat to supply them during the year. Few complaints are heard of hard times.
Some advanced tobacco growers in Texas have been experimenting with the object of growing a fine quality of Cuban cigar leaf, and the results, it is said, have been entirely satisfactory. The reports from Brazos, Paris, Calhoun, Nueces, Liberty, Grimes, Walker, Montgomery and other counties show that a very fine quality of Cuban tobacco can be grown in Southern and Southeastern Texas.
The rice acreage in Orange county, Texas, will be materially increased this year, and there will be almost a corresponding increase in fruit farming, for which that section is eminently adapted.
Mr. G. W. Duncan, of Greenville, Ala., has fattened thirty-nine hogs this season on twenty acres of ground peas, and says there are enough peas in the ground now to fatten as many more hogs and to keep them fat for a month yet.
I am asked to contribute a paper to the Southern States, giving my impressions of my first trip South. I will reply as I have done to my friend Mr. Clark Howell, of Atlanta, Ga., for the columns of his paper, from the stand-point of a business man and farmer, and not in my relation to the party who recently visited the seaboard States, composed in the main of medical editors, their wives and friends.
Too much praise cannot be awarded Dr. W. C. Wile, of Danbury, Conn., for promoting and organizing the party of Northern medical editors and their friends, thus bringing to their attention the unusual advantages of the Piedmont section of the Southern seaboard States to Northern emigration.
These distinguished gentlemen will shortly communicate their views through their respective journals, but what I shall say now will be quite free from all professional considerations.
Either North Carolina or Georgia must be regarded as the paradise of the fruit grower. I have had a large experience in vine growing and wine making in Western New York, having planted one of the first vineyards on the shores of Lake Keuka, and being one of the promoters of the Urbana Wine Co., and I am familiar in a practical way with that most remunerative culture of the black raspberry, in Yates county, New York, which furnishes the evaporated dried fruit so much now in demand, and may fairly be classed as one qualified to speak, in a practical way, as to the general features of fruit growing. The wine-growing industry, yet in its infancy in North Carolina, has gone far enough to demonstrate an assured success in a lucrative way, to those who carry on its productions on business methods. The experiments made at Southern Pines, N. C., have gone far enough to leave no manner of doubt of splendid results in the near future.
The difficulty with which the Northern grower has to contend are the high price of land and labor and the early frost. Labor in both Georgia and North Carolina is abundant and cheap. Eight dollars per month will cover the wages of men with rations, which can be computed at $2.50 per month. Frost is quite out of the question. The cost of land in desirable locations is as low as $3 to $10 per acre, and if unimproved land is taken a net of $10 would be ample to put good land ready to plant the vine. The plow can run in both the States every month in the year.
By way of Norfolk, the markets of New York and Philadelphia are as accessible to the fruit growers of these States as to Western New York, in both time and rate. North Carolina seems to have been chary of the immigration of foreigners. Of that great flood of European blood that has for the past twenty-five years poured into the ports of New York, neither North Carolina nor Georgia has received anything worth naming. It has swept like an enormous wave over the West, but not on the South Atlantic seaboard. You would secure those who are desirable and by proper work could do so.
The citizens of Northern States do not correctly understand your section. They should visit and carefully look into the capacities of your States. Nothing dispels illusions like contact and personal examination. The North is full of active, energetic, industrious men inured to labor, who do not know[30] what advantages you offer or they would flood into and buy up your unoccupied lands and form a splendid factor in the New South now forming. Would the Northern settlers be hospitably received? At the North this would be a controlling question. General Manager Winder, of the Seaboard Air Line, assures me that in his State the Northern settler would be most welcome. Ex-Governor Jarvis, of North Carolina, in a recent conversation, assured me that the Southern welcome would be whole-souled, full and free from the slightest danger of interference. I have equally high authority in Georgia of a similar state of public sentiment. Northern settlers would, strange as it may sound to you, need to be assured in these respects.
The present depressed state of financial affairs is not against such an immigration now. Your splendid railways should give especial facilities in reduced freights to actual settlers. Austin Corbin, one of our greatest railroad workers, transports free over his railways every pound of material an actual settler puts on his land in improvements. I would advocate free transportation of the household goods of every actual Northern settler by your great railway lines.
I do not dare to state what I think of the future of North Carolina and Georgia within the next fifty years. Yes, twenty-five years. No Georgian or Carolinian would believe as much as I see coming in the next generation. With a climate that not only rivals, but excels that of Italy, I say to Georgians and North Carolinians if you will yourselves open to Northern eyes the enormous advantages of your grand States, you will witness a spectacle within the next thirty years as marvelous as that we saw in Atlanta, where a magnificent city has arisen, phœnix-like, from the ashes made by Sherman’s army. And the new States of Georgia and North Carolina will come into a new and grander life, which will be as much a wonder to the next generation as Atlanta is to this.
THE SOUTHERN STATES.
THE
Southern States.
AN ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY MAGAZINE
DEVOTED TO THE SOUTH.
Published by the
Manufacturers’ Record Publishing Co.
Manufacturers’ Record Building,
BALTIMORE, MD.
SUBSCRIPTION: $1.50 a Year; $1 for Six Months
WILLIAM H. EDMONDS,
Editor and Manager.
BALTIMORE, MARCH, 1894.
The SOUTHERN STATES is an exponent of the Immigration and Real Estate Interests and general advancement of the South, and a journal of accurate and comprehensive information about Southern resources and progress.
Its purpose is to set forth accurately and conservatively from month to month the reasons why the South is, for the farmer, the settler, the home seeker, the investor, incomparably the most attractive section of this country.
In the general discussion of the various agencies to be depended on to bring about an enlarged and accelerated Southern immigration movement, there seems to have been little thought given to private enterprises as one of them.
A great deal has been said about the duty and self interest of railroads in the matter, and much has been spoken and written in advocacy of aggressive measures on the part of the States. It is quite true that the railroads should pursue the most liberal policy in fostering and developing immigration. Every farmer who settles in the territory of any road becomes a permanent producer of traffic for that road, and whether the railroad company be the owner of lands or not, the most profitable expenditures it can make are such as will help to populate and build up the country tributary to its lines. It is also true that every Southern State should have an immigration department or bureau, conducted not by small politicians, but by the most capable men to be had, and not supported by niggardly appropriations, but amply supplied with sufficient money to make possible the most progressive and comprehensive methods.
But, unfortunately, the ideal is not going to be reached as to either the railroads or the States. Both will in the aggregate come very far short of what ought to be done, and this will be more pronouncedly and lamentably true of the State governments.
Outside of these agencies, then, how is the cause of immigration to be advanced? The question and the conditions giving rise to it suggest an opportunity for capital and enterprise. In almost any part of the South very large areas of land may be gotten together at very low prices. With money enough to buy and properly develop farm lands, and with judicious management, there is hardly any limit to the profitable business that could be done by immigration or colonization companies. For example, a company that could buy say 10,000 to 20,000 or more acres of land in a body, or make up this acreage by consolidating a number of farms bought from different owners, and then divide this up into small farms of twenty, forty, eighty or more acres, construct roads throughout the entire area, drain the whole of it, put it all in the best shape for the most advanced farming or gardening operations, building houses, &c., and then direct themselves to the work of colonizing it or selling to individual settlers, such a company, with sufficient capital and properly managed, could quickly settle up almost any area of land and make enormous profits for its stockholders. Besides the tracts sold as small farms, there would necessarily be one or more centrally located village sites which would become immediately valuable as[32] town property. There is nothing easier than getting Northern farmers to go South. The conditions of farming and of life at the South are so incomparably superior to those at the North that they need only to be pressed upon the attention of Northern farmers to be availed of. In its millions of acres of cheap lands the South has the advantage of an entirely new and undeveloped country, and has with this all the advantages and comforts and attractions of an established and advanced civilization. The South is in the main more healthful than any other part of the United States, its range of farm and garden products is greater, it offers better opportunities for profitable agriculture, and it is in all respects a section where life can be lived in greater comfort than at the North. Convinced of these facts, hundreds of thousands of substantial and well-to-do farmers in other parts of the country would quickly move to the South. In fact, there is even now, all over the North and Northwest a disposition to go South. As was stated in a letter published in the January number of the Southern States, “there are thousands who would move South if somebody would start the ball rolling.” These are the conditions. Properly utilized, they can be made to furnish a wide and rich field for some of the millions now lying idle and non-productive in the financial centres.
The legislature of Virginia, in its very proper and commendable desire to promote immigration to the State, is discussing the enactment of some extraordinary legislation. A bill now before the senate provides for the appointment of a commissioner of immigration, who shall keep on file in his office a description of any lands submitted to him by any owner or real-estate agent, and shall receive a commission of not more than 5 per cent. upon the sale of any such lands in lieu of salary. Evidently, to the mind of the author of this bill, the benefits of an increase in the population of the State terminate with the sale of lands, and are confined to owners of such lands. The narrowness of a measure that would impose upon any one class of people the expense of an immigration department is manifest. The innumerable and widely ramifying benefits resulting from judicious immigration effort are shared by everybody, and the expense should be borne by everybody.
Aside from this inequity, there are many objections to the plan of giving the proposed commissioner an interest in the sale of lands. As an officer of the State he should be free from any possibility of bias as to any part of the State or any specific properties.
Let a commissioner of immigration be appointed by all means, and let an adequate fund be set apart for the expenses of his department, but let this come out of the receipts from taxes, and thus be equitably apportioned among all classes.
To say that no other State owes as much to any one man as Florida owes to Hamilton Disston, of Philadelphia, is a comprehensive statement, but it is probably true. About fifteen years ago some Northern capitalists were induced to consider the idea of building railroads in Florida. It was found on investigation that the State could not grant any of its lands to railroad companies, since all the lands of the State were covered by a general mortgage which had been made to secure the State bonds. Without this inducement nobody was willing to put a dollar into railroad building in Florida, for the reason that the early returns from traffic could not be expected to be such as would justify it. In this emergency Mr. Disston came to the rescue of the State. He bought 4,000,000 acres of Florida land, paying for it enough to discharge the entire State debt, thereby releasing the lands owned by the State, and placing it in a position to make grants to railroads. Immediately following this, contracts were made with New York capitalists, and Florida entered upon an era of railroad building and general development.
Of course it is beyond question that the enormous resources and capabilities of Florida would in time have brought railroads, with the development that accompanies them, but it is also true that but for this timely intervention and help from Mr. Disston, the beginning of this period of growth and prosperity would have been delayed, possibly many years.
Following this timely succor, Mr. Disston has now put the State under further obligation to him for one of the most stupendous and one of the most successful works of general improvement ever undertaken in this country. As was briefly told in the February number of the Southern States, he has reclaimed for the State many millions of acres of land that but for his enterprise would have been permanently a waste. True, he has himself reaped large rewards, as it is proper that he should have done, but this does not lessen the benefits the State receives, and moreover, the risk has been all his own, since the only return the State was to make to him for the millions of dollars spent in his drainage works was a share of the lands reclaimed from overflow.
The value of the services that Mr. Disston has rendered Florida are beyond estimate.
The News, of Birmingham, Ala., very correctly maintains that reduced railroad rates will not accomplish much in the way of inducing immigration, unless the measure be accompanied by liberal advertising. The News says:
Ten good settlers can be brought down from the effects of good advertising, without any half rates, where one can be brought down from the mere effects of half rates, and as a rule those who come solely on account of low rates never become settlers, but combined, the two do good service, reaching the better class.
The Southern States is the channel through which to reach the attention of the North and Northwest. It is the only Southern immigration journal; the only publication that can be looked to for information about the soil, climate, agricultural capabilities, etc., of the whole South. It is alone in this field. There has never been a time when there was such eagerness for facts about the South. From New England, the Middle States, the West, and notably from the Northwest, requests for sample copies and letters of inquiry about the South are pouring in upon us.
Advertisements in the Southern States will be read every month by many thousands of people all over the North and Northwest, who are eagerly seeking such information as will enable them to determine what part of the South is most likely to suit them.
The Boston Herald, in an editorial on the work of the Southern States, says: “The reports are extremely favorable in regard to richness and variety of crops, and the chief danger seems to be that the speculators in Southern lands, as well as many of the railroads, hold their lands at such prices as to dissuade the poorer but industrious class of immigrants from taking them up.” The danger apprehended by the Herald does not at all exist. There are many millions of acres of the best land in the South that can be had for prices that are merely nominal. The trouble is not that there is any fault to be found with the land, but there are not people enough in the South to cultivate more than a small part of the land, and the surplus is, therefore, in a sense valueless, no matter how rich and productive it may be. There are a good many millions of acres of railroad land, and in some of the States State land, that can be had for such prices and upon such terms as nobody can find fault with. And as to the private holdings of individuals, there is too much land in every part of the South unused, and therefore too many owners anxious to sell a part of what they own, to make possible any speculative putting up of prices.
That North Carolina needs immigrants of the right kind is too universally admitted to call for proof; and that all efforts heretofore made in this direction have been practically a failure seems also clear. It seems equally clear that circulars, handbooks and the State press fail of their purpose in this respect, because they never reach the class we desire to influence.—The Gazette, Washington, N. C.
The Gazette is right. Many thousands of dollars are wasted in printing books and pamphlets that nobody ever reads. There is a way, however, to reach the class it is desired to influence. It can be done through the Southern States. The Southern States is a journal of information about the South. It is engaged in the work of making known the resources in soil, climate and agricultural capabilities, of the Southern States. And such is the desire for accurate and comprehensive information about this section that although the magazine has been in existence only a year it goes into[34] every part of New England, the Middle States, the West and the Northwest, and is read by thousands of farmers and business men who are seeking to inform themselves as to the most attractive localities in the South.
The Southern States furnishes a channel through which to reach effectively the class of possible immigrants needed in the South.
In the general and very proper demand for railroad aid to the cause of Southern immigration, it should not be forgotten that many of the Southern roads have been for years giving conspicuous and liberal attention to this work. Through the efforts of such roads, for example, as the Mobile & Ohio, the Illinois Central, the Baltimore & Ohio, the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, the St. Louis Southwestern and others, hundreds of thousands of substantial farmers, artisans and business men have been induced to move to the South, and all of those roads are constantly enlarging their immigration work. A notable instance of broad and progressive management in furtherance of immigration is furnished by the Georgia Southern & Florida road, whose methods were made the subject of an article published in the January number of the Southern States.
Other Southern roads are becoming roused on this subject. The Seaboard Air Line system, which has a management as progressive and liberal as any road in the country, is preparing to inaugurate a comprehensive immigration policy, and the Richmond & Danville road is also adopting measures to induce Northern farmers to settle along its lines. The Louisville & Nashville and the Central Railroad of Georgia systems are also taking advanced steps in the same direction.
The introduction of artesian water in some of the Southern towns, notably Albany and Brunswick, Ga., has revolutionized the health of those places; the two localities named, which were formerly noted for the prevalence of malarial and other disorders, being now equally noted as health resorts. The last Georgia town to enter the artesian well procession is Quitman, Ga. The April number of the Southern States will contain an exhaustive article by Mr. James R. Randall, on drinking water. Mr. Randall has for many years been making investigations on this subject, and his article will be a revelation, not only to the general public, but to most physicians and hygienists as well.
The Augusta Chronicle, quoting the sage remark of a man who had amassed much wealth, who when asked how he had made his money, said that he always bought when everybody wanted to sell, and sold when everybody wanted to buy, urges that the present is the time for people with money to make investments. Prices of every sort have reached a minimum, and in view of the assured early reaction and the inevitable rebound to very high prices that will follow the long term of depression, this would seem to be as the Chronicle suggests, the time to buy things.
No sooner is Atlanta well under way with its great International Exposition project for 1895 than Macon comes to the front with an exposition enterprise of its own. A movement has been started to hold an exposition in the fall of 1894. These Georgia towns are great hustlers.
In Mr. Clark Bell’s article, published elsewhere, there is this statement:
“Austin Corbin, one of our greatest railroad workers, transports free over his railways every pound of material an actual settler puts on his land in improvements. I would advocate free transportation of the household goods of every actual Northern settler by your great railway lines.”
This is commended to the attention of Southern railroad managers.
The Legislature of Virginia seems to have some spite against real estate agents. Not satisfied with the present burdensome and wholly unjust tax imposed upon real estate dealers in the State, it is proposed now to make the real estate agents bear the expense of a State immigration commission.
Mr. John T. Patrick, of Southern Pines, N. C., secretary of the Southern Bureau of[35] Information, deserves much commendation for his enterprise and public spirit in having arranged for an excursion through the South of the editors of a number of leading Northern medical journals. This undertaking of Mr. Patrick’s is in furtherance of an effort to correct the impression that still exists in the minds of a great many Northern people that the South is an unhealthful section.
At the last meeting of the Commercial & Industrial association, of Montgomery, Ala., the president said in his monthly report: “The association should advertise the city and hold forth its advantages in every way possible which will attract capital and cause enterprising citizens to locate here. A new era of growth and enterprise will come apace and Montgomery should be prepared to reap the rewards that flow from it.” This admonishment may be heeded with profit by every community in the South.
Mr. Clark Bell, the writer of the article on the fruit growing possibilities of the South Atlantic seaboard, is a New York lawyer, and editor of the Medico-Legal journal of New York. He has had a quite extensive practical experience in fruit growing, and his judgment as to the capabilities of the South for this branch of agriculture is that of a competent expert. Mr. Bell was one of the party of editors of medical journals who recently made a tour of the South Atlantic States under the auspices of the Southern Bureau of Information, located at Southern Pines, N. C.
It seems incomprehensible to a Southern man that there should be any doubt in the minds of Northern people as to whether Northern settlers will be well received in the South or not. Mr. Clark Bell, in an article in this number, says: “Northern settlers would, strange as it may sound to you, need to be assured in these respects,” and he thinks it necessary to quote the assurances on this point that he had from distinguished Southern gentlemen. Not only will Northern farmers and business men be well received in the South, but they will find awaiting them a most eager welcome. The newspaper utterances all over the South, the statements of public men, the personal letters to the newspapers from farmers and merchants, the actions of commercial bodies, indicate not only a welcome to the Northern settler, but a keen appreciation of the value to the South of immigration from the North, and a most eager desire for this immigration. No Northern man, who is respectable enough to have standing in his own community at home, need have any fear but that he will find in the South the utmost consideration and good will.
The superior train service on the Chesapeake & Ohio is well known to all patrons of that system. During the month of January train No. 1 made the run between Washington, D. C., and Cincinnati, twenty-nine days, exactly on time, and on the other two days lost but twenty minutes. Train No. 2 made every trip between the cities on time, and the “Fast Flying Virginian,” one of the finest express trains in the country, reached Cincinnati thirty out of thirty-one trips on time, although it was an hour late out of Washington on seven trips, caused by waiting for connections. This is a month’s record that the operating department can be proud of.
The assistant land commissioner of the Illinois Central Railroad, Major G. W. McGinnis, in a recent interview on the subject of immigration to the Yazoo Delta, spoke as follows:
“I believe that the time has now come for the introduction of white labor. Our road, besides having agents all over the Northwest, have men in Germany and also in Holland, gathering families together to settle up our land. There are many residents of Dakota and other Northwestern States who want a milder and a better climate, with a soil more fertile than that of the Northwest. All these advantages are possessed by the Delta.
“The greatest interest is manifested in the movement. Scarcely a day passes but what we receive from fifty to seventy-five letters of inquiry.
“The colonists who have already taken advantage of our offers and settled along the Delta, are making money hand over fist. They are raising cotton, corn, vegetables, stock and fruit. The largest peaches I ever saw in my life came from the Delta.
“When our work is done we will see every man his own landlord, and by the way, these foreigners are apt to steer clear of that condition, so prevalent in the South, of being land poor. They want no more land than they can cultivate with the aid of their families, say forty acres. In fact, some of them buy no more than twenty. They make up the greatest population for agricultural districts possible to imagine. They have made the Northwest what it is.
“When the movement is once fairly started there will be no stopping the rush of immigration. Northern people all move in bodies. When one comes all come.”
The following resolutions were adopted at a meeting of the State Agricultural Society of Alabama, held at Birmingham, February 23:
Resolved, By the State Agricultural Society of Alabama, that we invite to Alabama all honest and industrious farmers that should be desirous of changing their home, and extend to them a cordial welcome, assuring them that the right hand of fellowship will be extended to them, and that feeling that is always accorded one good citizen from another will be extended to them by the farmers of the State.
Resolved (2), That we will cordially indorse and sustain our honorable commissioner of agriculture and his excellency, the governor of Alabama, in a vigorous and continuous effort for immigration made through the Department of Agriculture under existing law. At the same meeting, Mr. Chappell Cory, editor of the Birmingham Age-Herald, read by invitation a paper in advocacy of efforts to induce immigration from the North.
The organization of land companies for the purpose of inducing immigration to West Tennessee is most commendable, especially when these companies are conducted upon the plan of that one which proposes to open up the territory along the line of the Paducah, Tennessee & Alabama railroad. The capital of the company is very small, and there is little profit in the enterprise for those who have formed the company. They intend merely to direct the attention of immigrants to the advantages which this heaven-blest region holds for the thrifty and hard-working farmer. The road is a new one, but it runs through a most fertile region, especially adapted to small farming. The Illinois Central railroad has done much to attract settlers to Mississippi, and every railroad in this section should be equally alert. It was the railroad agent who made States out of Territories in the Northwest, and it is a most assuring sign that he is now taking hold of the Southern country. The railroad company is the best of all immigration or colonization societies. It can accomplish more at less expense than any other. The example set,[37] therefore, by the officials of the Paducah, Tennessee & Alabama, is commendable in the highest degree. The prosperity of a railroad depends upon the population of the country through which it runs, and the more rapidly the country is built up the sooner will the stockholders realize upon their investment. The public has a profound interest in such enterprises. The Appeal-Avalanche has no support to give to purely speculative and boom schemes, but it is in favor of all enterprises the object of which is to put forward the advantages of soil, climate and distributing facilities which Tennessee and other Southern States enjoy to such an exceptional degree.—Memphis Appeal-Avalanche.
Col. C. P. Atmore, the general passenger agent of the Louisville & Nashville railroad, is pushing the matter of immigration to the South with great vigor. When approached on the subject recently he said that the Louisville & Nashville road had several agents in the Northwest and in Europe, who were sending families down rapidly. It is the intention of the road to put between 200 and 300 families on its line between Paris and Memphis.
The Louisville & Nashville is now running home-seekers’ excursions from points at a rate of one fare for the round trip, with a view to encouraging the movement. It owns many thousand acres of land between New Orleans and Flomaton, Ala., and also between Pensacola and River Junction.
On the Nashville, Sheffield and Florence branch of the line in question there is a Norwegian colony of about 200 families. This colony has done remarkably well, and the road is much pleased with its venture.
At Velasco, Texas, recently several carloads of fine draft stock belonging to newly arrived farmers from Nebraska were received, and the next day several carloads of household goods for another colony from Kansas, who had bought farms in Brazoria county, were unloading. M. M. Miller, of the Velasco National Bank, and others have received letters from parties who are coming with families and stock from both of these States and from New Mexico, Iowa, Missouri and Illinois.
At the present rate Brazoria county’s population, it is said, will be doubled by the end of the present year; at least 90 per cent. of increase began coming in less than two years ago.
Mr. O. J. Johnson, excursion, land and colonization agent, of Minneapolis, has been prospecting in Florida for a site for settling immigrants from the North and Northwest.
Mr. Johnson will take a good many hundred people South, he says, if he has the right encouragement. He was the immigration agent of the Northern Pacific railroad for nine years.
Four business men of Minneapolis are interested with Mr. Johnson. They are Mr. N. C. Westerfield, Dr. William E. Wheelock, Messrs. P. S. McKay and C. E. Channel. Their idea is to purchase a tract of land of from 10,000 acres upward, divide it into smaller farms and lots and then sell these lots to such settlers as they want.
“I’ve had a deal of experience in this line,” said Mr. Johnson, “and know what is to be done. I am well satisfied with Florida’s climate and attractions, and know that we can settle many hundreds of good people. We have a large number of inquiries already, and I am satisfied we can place all the people we want to handle. The farmers of Dakota and other points in the Northwest are dissatisfied, and hundreds and hundreds of them will come the moment they are assured that this State promises them a fair living with the work they have to devote now to a mere existence.”
Officers of the Rock Island Fruit Growers’ and Improvement Association are in Texas inspecting lands. It is the purpose of the association to acquire a large tract of land in the Gulf coast region of Texas, in the centre of which to lay out a town site, giving to each member of the association a town lot. A maximum and minimum ownership of land is restricted by the by-laws of the association. Reservations are made for school, church, town hall, park and cemetery purposes. No lands can be held in unimproved state for speculation; a certain portion of each owner’s land must be improved during the first year by planting fruit, vegetables or other horticultural products, and at least two acres additional each succeeding year until each owner’s lands are under cultivation. When the products are ready to ship the shipments will be made in car lots to the most advantageous markets of the country.
The association expects to number 100 families, composed of persons who will go into the Texas coast region and make their homes, their previous occupations having been fruit growers, gardeners, mechanics from the government works on the island of Rock Island, clerks, artisans, etc. While their fruit trees are developing the members of the association will raise garden truck for shipment. The officers of the association propose visiting the most advantageous sections of the Gulf coast, from Houston to Corpus Christi, and will devote about four weeks time to that purpose. The originator of the enterprise is Mr. I. E. Whistler, whose attention was directed to Texas as a fruit growing country by seeing and testing some fine specimens of peaches shipped from Tyler, Texas, last June to New York City, which rivaled the best California peaches in size, and far surpassed them in flavor. The officers of the association making this tour are I. E. Whistler, president; J. O. Logan, vice-president, and W. E. Hilton, trustee.
Although the Mobile & Ohio Railroad only traverses a few miles of Alabama, yet it has done probably more in the way of inducing immigration to the State since 1890 than any other line, through extensive advertising, combined with excellent folders and maps, which have been extensively distributed through Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, etc. They also pursue the same liberal policy with local land agents and all engaged in promoting immigration along their road, distributing their advertising matter, and granting to them courtesies which are necessary to insure local parties to endeavor to give them the benefit of their work in securing immigrants. Alabama wants 10,000 families from the North to settle within her borders in the next twelve months, and only by hard combined work of the people and railways can it be accomplished, and now is the time to organize and keep the ball rolling. Let us get a move on us in this matter, and we can accomplish our object.—The News, Birmingham, Ala.
The farmers around Augusta, Ga., are becoming interested in a proposed plan to organize an immigration society, and many have expressed a desire to take an active part in perfecting a permanent organization of that kind.
A prominent merchant farmer from Wilkes county stated recently that the people of his section of the country were very much enthused over the organization of an immigration society in Augusta.
“You would be greatly surprised,” he said, “to know how many of our merchants and planters have taken up the idea, and how anxious they are to see such an organization established at Augusta. Our people are willing to help in every way possible, for they realize that they are to reap the benefits, and consequently are desirous of sharing the labors.
“You see, the farmers are generally land poor throughout the entire country, and what they want to do is to get some one who will work, and take some of it off their hands.”
The legislature of Virginia is trying to devise some method to promote immigration to the State. A bill has been introduced in the Senate, creating the office of Commissioner of Immigration of Virginia, and providing for the election of such an officer, who shall properly advertise the advantages of the State and shall, at the request of any real estate agent or owner of land, keep on file a list of lands for sale and shall refer all contemplating purchasers impartially to the various sections of the State, according to their requirements.
It is provided that the commissioner shall receive a commission of not more than 5 per cent. upon the sale of any lands sold through his department. Any owner of land situate in Virginia shall have the right to list for sale the same with the Commissioner of Immigration, who shall advertise, without cost to the owner, the fact that such lands are offered for sale.
The bill concludes by providing that the expenses attached to such an office shall be paid out of the fund arising from the tax on manufacturers of fertilizers.
Colonel E. S. Jemison, president; M. G. Howe, general manager; Major Tom Cronin, superintendent, and General John M. Claiborne, immigration agent of the Houston East and West Texas railway, are trying to interest the people along their line in some plan whereby immigration can be brought to that section of the State.
Mr. J. T. Merry, of Harlem county, Nebraska, writes from Velasco, Texas, to his home paper as follows:
“Here we are in Velasco, Texas, the land of sunshine and flowers. Surely this is destined to be a large city; within three miles of the mouth of the Brazos river, and a large, deep harbor, where ships come and go at pleasure, and load right here in this city heavier than at any point on the Gulf coast. Of course the country is new, but vegetables and fruit trees of all kinds are growing nicely. Good fruit and vegetable land can be bought from $4 to $12 per acre. The country all around, except on the Gulf side, is a gentle undulated plain, which is being settled with people from the Northern part of the State and from the Dakotas and Nebraska in the main, and Iowa, though some are from Missouri and other points.”
A Swedish gentleman who has had considerable experience in establishing colonies of his countrymen in the United States, has been conferring with Mr. John M. Lee, of Shreveport, La., representing the land department of the Vicksburg, Shreveport & Pacific Railroad Co., and looking over the ground, and says he can locate several hundred families if the conditions are favorable.
Mr. W. E. Pabor, founder of the Pabor Lake colony, near Fort Meade, Fla., has recently been visiting his old home, Denver, Col., and has induced a number of families to move to Florida.
There is more land open to settlement in Arkansas than there was in the Cherokee Strip. The Little Rock Democrat wisely says: “Counting all kinds of our public lands in Arkansas, government, State and railroad, we have nearly 7,000,000 acres. If we could divide these lands into homestead tracts, advertise them extensively and donate them at stated periods to actual settlers, what an impetus would be given to the State. What the State needs is not money for her lands, but active and enterprising home builders, who would become wealth producers and tax builders. A liberal land policy on the part of the State and the railroads would soon result in a vast increase in our wealth and population.”
One of the largest excursion parties of land-seekers that ever went South over the Mobile & Ohio railroad arrived at Mobile lately in charge of Mr. F. W. Greene, general agent of the Mobile & Ohio railroad, at St. Louis. The party consisted of all classes of home-seekers and investors, who have become interested in that section of country through the efforts of the passenger department of the Mobile & Ohio railroad. Over 200 people made up the excursion, some stopping off at places in Mississippi and Alabama. They went from Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, Indiana and Ohio.
Further developments regarding the steamship line to be established between Galveston and Denmark indicate that it will be of great importance to the Southwest. It is intended to use the vessels in transporting immigrants from Norway, Sweden and Northern Europe direct to Texas and the West by way of Galveston. Heretofore these passengers have been sent to New York, and from that point reached their future home by rail. The Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce has become interested in the project and heartily approves it. Vice-Consul Thygge Sogart, of Denmark, now located in Kansas City, is a promoter of the line.
Mr. Hamilton Disston says that Mr. Schulzen, a prominent Scandinavian, will establish a Scandinavian colony near Kissimmee. Mr. Disston met Mr. Schulzen at the Columbian Exposition, and impressed him with the fertility of the soil of Southern Florida, and advised him to try it. This he did, and became so satisfied with the prolific growth of sugar and peaches that arrangements have been made to settle Scandinavians on the South Florida railway, between Runnymede and Kissimmee, at once. Mr. Schulzen’s father and brother are now North disposing of their farms preparatory to settling in Florida.
The last monthly report of the president of the Commercial Industrial Association, of Montgomery, Ala., contained this paragraph:
“There is now a general interest in the subject of immigration to the South. The marked falling off in railroad earnings, with prospects for continued small returns, has aroused the great lines in the South to the necessity of making well directed efforts to induce Northern and Western people to visit the South and invest along the various roads. Some of the leading lines have called conventions of their agents to discuss ways and means to promote an increase of traffic and business. This association, with the other commercial bodies of[40] the State, will assist in every laudable effort to induce desirable people to build up the waste places of the State, increase the population and promote the general prosperity.”
The North Alabama Immigration Company is an organization formed at Florence, Ala., for the purpose of bringing immigrants to Lauderdale county and surrounding sections. The officers are J. Overton Ewin, president; R. G. Banks, general manager; R. T. Simpson, Jr., attorney, and John Rather Jones, secretary and treasurer. The company expects to take several excursion parties to that section of Alabama from the Northwest. Dr. N. A. Nelson is the Northwestern agent at Dawson, Minn.
The section of the valley of Virginia around Lexington has attracted some attention from prospective purchasers from the North, West and Northwest, who are going to locate at some point in the Shenandoah Valley. Additional inquiries are being made for homes and farms, and the prospects are that as soon as the weather opens a number of these parties will pay that section a visit to look over the country.
The immigration movement to Southwest Texas is progressing at a lively rate. The new settlers are mostly from Kansas and Nebraska.
C. R. Camp, a home-seekers’ traveling agent, expects to take an excursion of Northwestern farmers to points in the South some time in March. His plan is to inaugurate a series of monthly excursions, beginning about March 1 and continuing twelve months. He says the class of people he will bring South are among the best citizens of the North and Northwest, farmers who are hard working and practical, who want good farming land, and are making the change on account of the climate.
A large number of farmers from Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Kansas, have settled in the neighborhood of Port Lavaca, Texas. It is here that the Phillips Land Co., of Kansas City, Mo., has bought some 6000 acres of land, and divided it up into small farms for German colonists.
On February 16th a party of sixty persons from Iowa and Nebraska reached Fort Worth, Texas, on the way to the Gulf Coast to investigate the fruit-growing capabilities of that region. Most of the party are descendants of the people who built up Nebraska, and made that State take a front rank among the wealth-producing States of the Union. While most of them are doing well at home, they are anxious to live in a more congenial climate, and have had their eyes on Texas for a long time.
In consequence of numerous inquiries from the Northwestern States, Mr. M. V. Richards, of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co., has arranged a number of special rate land excursions, as they are called, from Chicago and points west of the Ohio river to Baltimore & Ohio points in the Shenandoah Valley, in order to induce settlers to come to this region. Mr. Richards intends to make the most of the reduction in rates allowed by the Southern Passenger Association on certain dates in February, March and April for the purpose of aiding Southern immigration.
A large number of land seekers recently visited Crowley, La., and most of them bought property. Indiana and Nebraska were among the States represented. The visitors report great dissatisfaction among the farmers of their States, and say that Louisiana will receive many immigrants this year.
Messrs. Sappington & Howell, Little Rock, Ark., are working on a plan to combine the State and railway lands in Arkansas, aggregating 7,000,000 acres, and offer them for sale at nominal prices on an opening day, to be fixed.
A dispatch from Rockford, Ill., says that quite a company of Rockford’s Swedish population are planning to move down to Mississippi this spring.
The Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville, Ala., is in receipt of many letters from the West asking about farm lands in the neighborhood. Huntsville is one of the most delightful towns in the South. It is surrounded by a splendid farming country.
Norwegian prospectors are going into Lawrence county, Tenn., every day and the majority of them buy homes. There are over 100 families here. They are good farmers and make good citizens.
A movement is on foot to locate upon the rich prairie and timbered lands adjacent to and just west of Charlotte Harbor, Fla., a colony of Bohemian agriculturists.
It is reported that a tract of land aggregating about 12,500 acres, at Wilson Station, Ala., on the Louisville & Nashville railroad, has been bought for a German colony. The first settlement will be named “Milton Grove,” in honor of Mr. Milton H. Smith, president of the Louisville & Nashville railroad.
A recent settler at North LeRoy, Fla., is so much delighted with the country that he has persuaded seventeen families of his former neighbors in Missouri to move to Florida.
The business men of Baton Rouge, La., are organizing a development club, to further the interest in securing immigration, etc.
A party of twenty Illinois capitalists, including Mr. A. L. Klank, a nurseryman of Champaign, Ill., has been looking over Arkansas with a view to making large investments in fruit farms.
The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railway recently took 200 home-seekers to Texas from Kansas and Nebraska, and 400 more were to follow.
It is said that a transaction is now under way by which 3000 families, representing a population of 15,000, are to be located in the Yazoo Delta.
The annual report of the Roland Park Co., of Baltimore, makes a showing that, considering the extreme business depression of the last year and a half, is quite remarkable. The Roland Park Co. is engaged in developing a fine suburban residence park north of Baltimore, three or four miles from the centre of the city. The first building operations were begun in October, 1892. The first house was completed early in the spring of 1893. On the 30th of December, 1893, the date to which the annual report is brought down, the residences built and under construction represented a total cost of more than $300,000. In the space of a year a locality that was in effect nothing more than farm property has been transformed during a period of unprecedented financial and business stagnation into a beautiful and rapidly growing residence suburb, with all the comforts and conveniences and appurtenances of life in the thickly built up part of the city. Between thirty and forty families have moved out to the park for permanent residence, and are living in houses that cost from $4000 to $15,000 each. At the initiation of this enterprise there was not a man in Baltimore who would have looked for such development as this, even with favorable business conditions.
Baltimore is an anomaly in this matter of suburban residence. Up to two or three years ago the city had no rapid transit, and consequently no suburban development. Its half million people lived in compactly built rows of brick houses, having neither front nor side yards. The enterprise of the Roland Park Co. was the first suburban development undertaking of a high class and on a large scale. Messrs. Jarvis and Conklin, of Kansas City and New York, who have invested in this country something over $30,000,000 of English money, bought 500 or 600 acres of land immediately north of Baltimore, and proceeded to develop it as a first-class residence suburb. An avenue 120 feet wide was constructed through the property, and a double track electric road was built through the property to a resort at Lake Roland, and coming down to the centre of the city at the City Hall and postoffice. A system of water works, a complete scientific sewerage system, paved roadways, asphalt sidewalks, along which shade trees were set out, and electric lights and other conveniences and accessories to comfort were provided. Under the management of Mr. Edward H. Bouton, the vice-president and general manager of the company, the progress that has been made in the actual building up of the locality has been much beyond what was expected, and there are many reasons for the assurance that this will seem small in comparison with the progress that will be made during the coming spring and summer.
The present high rate of taxation in the city proper, and the recent large expenditures for public improvements that will necessitate an early increase in the tax rate are tending to send people into the suburbs. This and many other potent causes point to a rapid building up of Baltimore’s suburban territory.
Real estate is getting active at Atlanta. One firm alone, since January 1st, has sold $128,000 worth of property in the city and vicinity. Samuel Goode, a realty expert, gives the following opinion of the outlook in Atlanta:
“The practical certainty that the United States prison will be located in Atlanta, the direct probability that the Grand Army of the Republic will hold its next convention here, and the settled fact that the greatest exposition ever seen in the South will be opened here in 1895—these things combined have given our people hope and confidence in the continued rapid growth of Atlanta, and the timid have begun to find courage enough to turn their money loose for loans and direct investments in real estate. Indeed, the change for the better has been very perceptible to dealers in the last sixty days. It is not any particular advance in prices which is so marked, because, in this respect there has never been any falling off, but it is the fact[43] that people are beginning to buy at the normal prices. The best prices realized for property at all have been obtained within the past six months.
“Another evidence of returning confidence and activity is found in the desire and willingness of owners to sell their property at auction. We already have a variety of property to be thus sold early this spring. There has been a spirit of fairness and liberality manifested by our citizens, one towards another, in the past year, which is truly commendable; and the result is that creditors basing their security upon real estate have not forced property for sale and broken prices and distressed if not ruined their debtors; but they have exercised a wise forbearance, and will soon be rewarded by full payment of all that is due them, and values have been sustained in Atlanta as in no other city within my knowledge. All signs point to an active spring market, and to the investing here of much outside capital.”
A syndicate of St. Louis people is constructing a suburban residence park at New Orleans. A body of land recently bought for that purpose measures about 700 feet frontage on St. Charles street by 8000 feet deep. The plans call for an ornamental entrance in the middle of the front, and a graveled driveway through the middle of the plat. As projected the entrance will be defended by handsome gates, the carriage opening being about 100 feet wide, and two gates for foot passengers on either side. Electric lights, prettily arranged, will stud the edge of the arch leading to the apex, where an ornamental structure of iron work will support additional bulbs. About 1500 feet of roadway have been built, leading from the gateway back into the grounds, while equal distances of Schillinger pavement have been laid on either side. A plat has been reserved in the middle for shade trees and shrubbery.
The Capital City Real Estate and Investment Company, with a capital stock of $30,000, has been organized at Austin, Texas. H. P. N. Gammel is president.
Daytona, Fla., is rejoicing in much real estate activity.
Two of the most noted stock farms in Kentucky, both near Lexington, have recently been sold. Mr. Jno. T. Hughes, the well-known horseman, has purchased the Prince George place for a reported sum of $60,000. J. R. Keene, the Eastern horseman, has bought the Castleton farm, the property of Colonel Ford, of Virginia. The price is given as $70,000.
The Southern Farm Agency, of Lynchburg, Va., has recently sold some farms to Northern people, and advertises in this issue of the Southern States a number of very fine properties that can be had at very low prices. The Southern Farm Agency, by the way, is one of the most enterprising and progressive real estate concerns in the South.
The president of the Commercial and Industrial Association of Montgomery, Ala., in his last monthly report, says: “The real-estate market of Montgomery shows some evidences of improvement. From returns compiled of this city for the month of January it is shown that the increase of sales is more than 20 per cent. over the corresponding month of last year. The values of desirable business and residence property and also of well situated and improved agricultural lands have remained steady and are firmly held. It is also believed the spring and summer will show still greater activity, with perhaps an increase in values. There are comparatively few vacant houses for a city of Montgomery’s size, but the prospects and building operations will show some falling off the coming year.”
A tract of 1575 acres near Velasco, Texas, has been sold to J. B. Wagoner and J. T. Gould, of Eureka, Ill., for $19,687.
The late S. S. Houghton, a millionaire, and head of the noted Boston dry-goods house of Houghton & Dutton, built a few years ago a magnificent winter residence at Homosassa on the gulf coast of Florida. Mr. Houghton died last spring, and his widow has sold the Homosassa estate to Mr. J. A. Rowell, vice-president of the Merchants’ National Bank, Ocala. The building and grounds are said to have cost $100,000.
The building occupied for nearly thirty years by the People’s Bank in Louisville, Ky., has been sold to the Bank of Commerce, and will in a few weeks be occupied by the last-named institution. The price paid was $27,000.
A delegation of Northern lumbermen, under the charge of E. C. Randall, a real estate operator of Chicago, recently spent some time inspecting timber lands in South Arkansas.
The Little Rock (Ark.) Gazette publishes lists of recent land transfers in that city and in the county, from which it appears that the real-estate business of that locality is not suffering much from the hard times.
The governor of Arkansas and the State Commissioner of mines, manufactures and agriculture have invited the real-estate dealers of the State to file with them descriptions of properties for sale in order that they may have definite information to furnish people who are seeking homes in Arkansas and write to them for information about prices and location of lands.
It is said at Fort Worth, Texas, that there has not been for years such demand and inquiry for property as there is now. The influx of immigration has been unprecedented, especially in North and West Texas, many of the newcomers having located in Tarrant county, in which Fort Worth is situated. Renting agents report that the demand for houses largely exceeds the supply.
The Texas land office has leased 375,000 acres of land to J. S. Daugherty, of Dallas, Texas, for a term of five years. This is said to be the largest amount of land ever leased to any one person by the State. The lease will bring a revenue to the public free school fund of $15,000 annually.
The Southern Farm Agency, of Lynchburg, Va., has just sold to Mr. A. E. Miltimore, of Catskill, N. Y., 2000 acres of land in Appomattox county, on the Norfolk & Western Railroad. Mr. Miltimore has already taken down several carloads of sheep and horses, and intends making it a fine stock farm, for which, in many respects, it is said to be most admirably adapted.
Mr. George H. Zerr, of Reading, Pa., has purchased a fine estate near Morrisville, Fauquier county, Va., and will reside there.
Pittsburg capitalists have bought thirty-two acres of land near Wheeling, W. Va.
Florence, S. C., is having considerable real estate activity.
Mr. W. P. Clyde, of the Clyde Steamship Co., has bought 2000 acres of land on Hilton Head Island, near Beaufort, S. C., at $3.00 an acre. Mr. Clyde was already the owner of a farm on the island.
The annual statement of the Roanoke Development Co. for 1893, recently issued, shows a satisfactory state of affairs. Shareholders have purchased nearly $282,000 worth of the company’s lots, paying for them partly in stock. In addition to this the company sold $14,258 worth of lots to outsiders. Thus far the sales have amounted to $340,428, which is an average price of $2535 per acre. The company still has 1153 acres unsold. The officers of the company are P. L. Terry, president; Malcolm W. Bryan, vice-president; S. W. Jamison, treasurer; L. R. Sollenberger, secretary.
George Logan, of Salem, Va., has just bought a farm of 318 acres adjacent to that town for $9000.
E. F. Porter, one of the leading lumbermen of Kansas City, has been down to inspect with a view to purchasing a tract of 25,000 acres of pine and oak timber land in South Arkansas owned by the land department of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway.
A large tract of land, known as Cliffbourne, at Rock Creek Park, near Washington, D. C., was sold recently to Francis G. Newlands for $185,000.
A farm of 265 acres near Staunton, Va., has been sold by J. B. Smith and H. G. Eichelberger, of Staunton, to a gentleman from Maine, who will move down with his family.
Mr. O. Van Buskirk, of Mt. Sterling, Ohio, has bought 330 acres of land near Florence, Ala., and will move there. Several families besides his own will accompany him.
Mr. R. S. Oglesby, of Lynchburg, Va., recently sold a farm in Bedford county to James W. Dawson, of the John Shillito Co., Cincinnati, Ohio.
The real estate agents in the South who are known in the North and West are receiving constant inquiries about farm lands. The majority of inquiries seem to come from Dakota.
E. Mallen, of Ironwood, Mich., has purchased a farm near Cloverdale, Ala., and is interesting some of his fellow countrymen in Lauderdale county. Mr. Mallen is a Finlander, and has been farming a number of years in the Northwest. A number of his friends expect to buy farms and locate in the same county.
There has been lately a decided improvement in the demand for stores and business places in Richmond, Va. Messrs. J. Thompson Brown & Co. report a number of large leases.
The town of Springfield, Fla., is enjoying a building boom. About thirty dwellings are being erected, and a number of residences and stores are being planned. Real estate business is brisk.
A ranch, in Calhoun Co., Texas, two miles from Port Lavacca, containing 22,000 acres owned by Mr. W. H. Thomas, has been bought by a Northern syndicate for $132,000. It will be cut up into small tracts and colonized. The plans for its development also provide for the building of factories, hotel, &c.
The Vicksburg, Shreveport & Pacific Railroad Co. has sold to Otto Plock, of Paris, France, 7,554 acres of land situated in Ouachita Parish, La. The consideration was $26,440.68 cash. It is said to be the purpose of the purchaser to establish a large colony of Swedes on these lands, selling the lands to them in small lots on easy payments.
Real estate continues active at Fort Worth, Texas. There is a great demand for small houses. “If I had twenty-five such houses today I could rent them all before night,” said Mr. W. R. Sanner, a real estate agent. “I do not know a better investment,” he continued, “than to build such residences, with modern improvements, to cost from $1,000 to $2,500.” Messrs. Huffman & Co. have in hand a trade in adjacent counties, for Ohio parties, which represent the sum of $20,000. California parties are negotiating for pasture land held at $16,000.
Messrs. J. Thompson Brown & Co., Richmond, Va., received recently a letter from Callao, Peru, from a gentleman who wishes to purchase real estate at Richmond. The same firm reports that every mail brings them from two to five letters from parties in the West and Northwest, who write they have decided to settle in Virginia, and want information as to real estate, etc. In the past ten days they have been in negotiation with one or more parties in Ohio, Michigan, New York, Minnesota, Chicago, Pennsylvania, Colorado, St. Paul, Indiana, Illinois, Nebraska, Kansas, Wisconsin, and other points who wish to purchase farms, manufacturing or building sites. From one of the locations named they are trying to locate a colony of fifty families on a tract of 5000 acres.
A dispatch from Rocky Mount, N. C., states that parties from the North are negotiating to purchase 20,000 acres of land in Nash and Halifax counties for development and investment.
The Island City Abstract Co. has been organized at Galveston, Texas, with H. M. Truehart, president; I. A. Harrington, secretary, and Joseph Lobit, treasurer, and $20,000 capital.
“The Real Estate, Title and Guarantee Co.,” has been organized at Newport News, Va., with the following named officers: Carter M. Braxton, president; L. P. Stearns, vice-president; Charles Sheppard, secretary; Arthur Lee, treasurer. The capital is $100,000.
A New York capitalist has just invested $62,500 in real estate in New Orleans. The transaction was made through Messrs. Robinson & Underwood, real estate agents, New Orleans, who state that other purchases will follow this.
Messrs. G. M. Reynolds & Co., of Norfolk, Va., sold recently a number of lots adjacent to Portsmouth, improved and unimproved, for an aggregate of $13,000.
The people of Atlanta are pushing their proposed exposition with the same vigor with which they undertook the preliminary organization. The enthusiasm which has marked every step of progress shows how thoroughly in earnest Atlanta is, and gives promise of what may be expected from the exposition. Director-General Palmer is getting his working force into good shape, and reports that from all sections of the country the most hearty and enthusiastic commendations are being received. If carried out on the scope upon which it has been planned, this exposition will be for the South what the World’s Fair was for Chicago and the country at large. It will centre in the South an amount of interest scarcely appreciated now, but which will mean the investment of many millions and in time of many hundreds of millions of dollars. It will also mean a stimulation of the Southward trend of population, and thousands who are thinking of moving South will be determined by the work of the exposition. Everything indicates that the exposition will be on a scale far surpassing anything that has ever before been seen in the South.
Preparations are being made by Messrs. Ross & Sanford, of Baltimore, to begin the work of deepening and otherwise enlarging what is known as the Dismal Swamp Canal. The canal, which is twenty-two miles long, will be dredged to an average depth of ten feet and widened to sixty feet. This will require the removal of 3,000,000 cubic yards of material. As the capacity of the average dredge is 3000 yards per day, the magnitude of the work can be appreciated. Another important work will be the construction of two main and two secondary locks, the main locks to be 250×40 feet each in the clear. By the lock system the water in the canal level can be raised to a height of thirteen feet. When the work is finished vessels with nine feet draught can pass through the waterway without difficulty. Some of the lumber needed to build the dredges to be employed has already arrived at the scene of operations.
The amount of money to be expended in this work will be fully $1,000,000. This passageway is to be used extensively by lumber barges, fruit and truck steamers and other craft plying between Hampton Roads and North Carolina waters. The improvements will tend to greatly increase the trade between Norfolk, Portsmouth and the tidewater country south of those cities.
The increase in coal business at Pensacola, Fla., is very marked, and an excellent demand is noted for Alabama coal, which thus far has been the only kind sent from that city. The Export Coal Co. reports that it has one contract for 11,000 tons to be delivered at Tampico by March 1, also another for 60,000 tons to be delivered at Vera Cruz and Tampico during 1894. The company also has 30,000 tons to be filled on an order from Galveston by June 1. The exports of Alabama coke are very small as yet, but the indications are that the amount will be greatly increased this year.
Everything seems to be contributing to the building up of a great seaport city at Newport News, Va. The business over the fast freight line established by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis and Chesapeake & Ohio from the West to Newport News is being increased by grain shipments from along the Chicago & Northwestern. A through rate has been made on cereals for export to Liverpool, with the result that the new line is not only securing business from Missouri and Kansas and the country traversed by the “Big Four” system, but the territory in Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa for which the Northwestern is an outlet. As the latter has about 3500 miles of lines in these States, the great advantage of having the Northwestern as a feeder is apparent. The people who[47] are forwarding the business have very thoroughly examined the facilities at Newport News and were so pleased with them and the way the business has been handled that they intend making more extensive exports by way of that port.
In this connection it is reported that the Vanderbilts have privately secured a larger interest in the Chesapeake & Ohio and in Big Four than they have ever held, and mean to control absolutely that line from Chicago to the seaboard, with the line of steamers from Newport News.
President M. H. Smith, of the Louisville & Nashville, has arranged for a reduction of coal rates from Jellico, which will permit of the introduction of Jellico coal into Chicago and Illinois and Michigan points on the same basis as West Virginia coal. This will, it is reported, also include the Middlesborough district. The reduced rate will doubtless result in a great increase in the Western shipments of Kentucky coal, the superior quality of which has created for it a Western demand, despite high freights.
The extensive coal deposits near the Rio Grande, in Presidio county, Texas, it is stated, are to be opened and mined on an extensive scale by the San Carlos Coal Co., which controls 53,000 acres of land containing veins of semi-bituminous coal forty-one inches thick in some places. President S. A. Johnston, of the company, in a letter to the Manufacturers’ Record, says that his company has made a contract to sell at least 115,000 tons yearly to the Southern Pacific Railroad. The Northern office of the company is at Pittsburg, Pa.
Work is about to begin on a canal in Florida which will be of great importance to the lumbering and agricultural interests of the section through which it is to pass. It will extend from a point in Marion county, at the head of Ratcliff’s prairie to Mill Creek swamp. It will be eleven miles long and thirty feet wide at the bottom. The estimated cost of dredging the canal is $75,000. The object of the canal is to reclaim thousands of acres of submerged swamp lands, covered with rich muck from five to ten feet in depth, with a clay bottom, and to provide transportation for pine and cypress timber.
The syndicate interested has purchased 15,000 acres of land along its line. When the improvements are completed they expect to engage largely in the growing of rice and sugar-cane, and hold out inducements to settlers who desire to buy rich lands cheap. D. D. Rogers, at Ocala, is engineer. Among the capitalists interested is Christian Ax, of the firm of G. W. Gail & Ax, Baltimore.
Following the announcement that the Chesapeake & Ohio is to enter Norfolk comes the statement that the United States Cotton Warehouse & Loan Co. has asked for legislative authority to build wharves, warehouses, elevators and other buildings; also to construct and operate a terminal railway not over five miles in length. It is also to conduct a general wharfage and warehouse business, with a capital of at least $50,000. The main office is to be in Norfolk or Portsmouth. The corporators are Edward A. Pierson, of New York; John H. Dingee, of Philadelphia; J. Andre Mottu, of Norfolk; J. R. McMurran, of St. Paul, Minn.; Heber Alter, of Philadelphia; James Y. Leigh, of Norfolk; S. Henry Norris, of Philadelphia; William Burrington, of Philadelphia; Herman Niemeyer, of Portsmouth; Fergus Reid, of Norfolk; C. W. Murdaugh, Marcellus Miller, of Berkley; Parke Poindexter, of Berkley; William Goddin, of Philadelphia; William Schmoele, Jr., of Portsmouth; John L. Vaughman, O. P. Heath, S. L. Burroughs and Walter S. Taylor. A number of well-known capitalists appear in the list, and the enterprise evidently means much for Norfolk and vicinity.
The Florence Pump Co., of Florence, Ala., has made a contract with a Philadelphia firm to supply $40,000 worth of pumps.
The water works plant at Yorkville, S. C., has been completed, tested and accepted by the town council. The plant consists of about three miles of mains, a stand pipe seventy feet high on a fifty-foot tower, 120 feet in all, with a capacity of 60,000 gallons. The water is forced into the stand pipe by a pump of 500,000 gallons capacity, and the stream which furnishes the water will furnish (estimated) 150,000 gallons a day. There are 800 feet of hose, and the total cost, including hose, was $16,800.
The Shea Plating and Manufacturing Co., of Cleveland, Ohio, has entered into a contract to remove to Macon, Ga., and the work of transferring the plant has begun.
Railroad communication and the building of ice factories on the west coast of Florida, have resulted in the building up of an important fishing industry, which is growing rapidly. St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Dunedin, Ozona, Sea Side and Tarpon Springs are the principal shipping points, and there was forwarded from these ports for 1893 a total of 7,901 barrels.
The Fort Worth Gazette says of Terrell Texas: “Never before in the history of Terrell and vicinity has there been such demand for homes and tillable grounds. Many persons having large pastures are cutting them up in farms, at least a portion, and if the demand increases the large pastures will have to be given up to farming interests instead of grass pastures. Several thousand acres of new land will be put in cultivation this year in this county.”
For several weeks Messrs. Rand, McNally & Co., printers and publishers, have had an agent in the South prospecting for the most suitable place, in point of business and situation, to establish a distributing house, their main houses being in New York and Chicago. Charlotte, N. C., has finally been fixed upon as the most desirable point.
Newport News had the honor of constructing the first iron and steel merchant vessels built in the South, and the largest ever launched in the United States. El Cid, made famous by being turned into a warship for the Brazilian government, enjoys the distinction of having broken all records in the passage between New York and New Orleans. El Norte, El Rio, and El Sud are not far behind her. Following this distinction comes the docking for repairs of the big American liner New York, which was done February 19. The New York is the largest ship ever docked in America. No other yard on this side the Atlantic could do it. The Newport News dock has but one rival in point of size—the government dock, at Brooklyn—and it is doubtful if that is large enough to admit of her entrance. As soon as the big ship touched the dock a force of 1000 men was put to work upon her.
A new manufacturing enterprise of some importance is about to be inaugurated at Bedford City, Va., by Mr. W. B. Dunn, who has organized the Bedford Manufacturing Co., with himself as secretary. The company’s purpose is to manufacture custom-made clothing to be sold at manufacturers’ prices, making a specialty of trousers, using the product of all leading Southern woolen mills, as well as other fine foreign and domestic goods. It is intended to appoint agents in all towns and cities in the South having 4000 inhabitants or more.
The city hall at Richmond, Va., recently completed at a cost of $1,370,000, is one of the finest municipal buildings in the country.
It is announced that the Boston capitalists who have decided to invest about $300,000 in an office-building in Atlanta, Ga., have secured a site and are to have plans prepared at once. Mr. H. M. Atkinson, who is their Atlanta representative, states that the building is to be fire-proof, ten stories high and will contain all the features of the modern structure for offices.
Hon. Jonathan Norcross, of Atlanta, Ga., is having plans prepared for a five-story building for offices to cost several hundred thousand dollars.
The Houston East & West Texas Railroad, running from Houston, Texas, to Shreveport, La., is not very much of a road as to mileage, but there is more hustle about it than most roads of ten times the length exhibit. With only 232 miles of road the company is doing more relatively towards the development of the country it traverses than almost any other road in the country. Recently a development department has been created and put in charge of General John M. Claiborne, an old newspaper man. Among other methods of building up the territory of the road, and besides the usual concessions to settlers in the way of passenger and freight rates, the company has offered to contribute to a common fund an amount equal to all that can be raised by the people of the counties through which the road passes, the money to be spent in getting in settlers. The road promises to locate at least one family for every two dollars the citizens of these counties will raise. The country through which this road passes includes some superb farm and garden lands, and large areas of original forest timber, pine and hard woods, and with the energy and push of the managers of the road it will not be long before immigrants will be pouring into their country.
The officers of the road are E. S. Jemison, president; M. G. Howe, vice-president; M. S. Meldrum, secretary and treasurer, and T. Cronin, superintendent, all of Houston.
The people of Middlesborough, Ky., and Middlesborough property owners living elsewhere are making strenuous efforts to induce the Middlesborough Town Lands Co. to reappoint Mr. A. A. Arthur to the active management of the company’s affairs. Ever since the termination of Mr. Arthur’s management the town has been in a state of virtual stagnation, and it is believed that Mr. Arthur alone can rescue it from collapse and restore it to its former condition of growth and prosperity.
Several delegations of citizens and property owners have called on the company’s present commissioner at Middlesborough, Mr. Lionel H. Graham, of London, and urged him to bring about the appointment of Mr. Arthur. On February 17, a mass meeting was held, at which the following resolutions were adopted:
Resolved, By the people of Middlesborough in mass meeting assembled, that the opportunity presented by Mr. L. H. Graham, who is now in our midst as the representative of the stockholders of the Town Lands Co., seeking information and encouragement for the guidance of his associates, be seized, and that we, the citizens and property owners of Middlesborough, who have borne the brunt of all the troubles of past two and one-half years, and have witnessed and studied both administrations, and who have been with the stockholders in prosperity and adversity, respectfully but emphatically ask a return to the old original plan of administering the affairs of the Town Lands Co.
Resolved, That we know that all the great and valuable resources upon which the city was started still exist; we have seen railroads brought to us and great enterprises created in our midst. The necessities of a city have been established, all legitimate expenditures have been made and nothing now remains to be done to re-establish credit, activity and progress, but the appointment of a leader, a wise and liberal man, one of intelligence, wide experience, integrity and extended connections, one in whom we can place great confidence.
Resolved, That in Mr. A. A. Arthur, creator and projector of Middlesborough and all the adjacent territory, we find such a man. None other has so great an interest. We will stand by him and we believe and know that he alone can pull you, the stockholders, and us, the citizens, out of the abject state in which we now are.
Resolved, That we most heartily ask for and will most cordially approve the reappointment of Mr. A. A. Arthur to the active management of the Middlesborough Town Lands Co.; we[50] believe that he can rescue this city from ruin, and the sooner the management is placed in his hands the sooner will confidence be restored and values be re-established.
Resolved, That the interests of the Town Lands Co. are alike the interests of the city and the citizens thereof; one cannot prosper without the other, hence the citizens and property owners are profoundly earnest in their desire to see Mr. Arthur restored to power, as they believe that his restoration will give new life not only to Middlesborough but to Southeastern Kentucky as well, and that we will enter upon a career of unexampled prosperity.
The annual fair of the East Carolina Industrial Association was held in New Berne on February 19th to 23d, inclusive, and was formally opened by Gov. Carr with a sterling address, in which he referred to the tidewater region as the garden spot of the continent, enumerating its resources and estimating their economic value, present and prospective. The exhibit, as a whole, was a surprise to home visitors as well as strangers, especially in marine, agricultural and mechanical products. Its mineral exhibit was remarkable in respect to native ores and precious stones. Thirty-one counties in the State are mining gold at a profit. Nuggets were shown which were valued at $52 and upwards. Eighty-five varieties of commercial woods were shown. There was a great variety of building stones. Tomato plants six inches high, garden peas three inches high, and strawberry blossoms were shown. The department of ladies’ work was superlative. Dairy products were meagre, only three samples of butter being shown. There was a great variety of feed in bales—native grasses, stock peas and corn fodder. Fine samples of wool and blankets were exhibited. The same blankets took a premium at Chicago. Some fine Southdown sheep from the Tucker farm near Raleigh were on view. There were some fine Jersey, Devon and Alderney cattle, and superior Berkshire and Red Jersey pigs and fat hogs, running up to 600 pounds in weight.
The fish and oyster exhibit, with the nets and apparatus, is always a prominent feature of the annual expositions, and was well sustained. Roe shad were remarkably fine.
There was an attractive exhibit of live and dead game and fur-bearing animals, and two curious hybrids between turkey, guinea fowl and Plymouth Rock hen. The floral exhibit was simply exquisite, and the colonial relics and old family plate and curios were very interesting. There was never such a poultry show seen on earth for quality and variety. At least two kinds were shown!
In the department of Women’s Work the productions of deft fingers were astonishing in all fabrics, laces, gold embroidery, feathers, flowers, etc., rivaling Japanese art, and causing Valenciennes to blush with jealousy. Altogether, there was a wonderful diversity of industrial products of which the old North State and all her sisters may be proud. New Berne herself has earned honors.
A bill is to be introduced in the legislature of Maryland, which is now in session, enlarging the powers of the chief of the bureau of industrial statistics so as to give him authority to provide for the settlement of immigrants in Maryland. The bill makes it the duty of the chief of the bureau to collect reliable information in every county of the State bearing upon the question of immigration, and authorizes him to appoint a local immigrant commissioner in each county. The local commissioners are to receive $2.50 a day for each day of actual service and personal expenses, the expenses are to be itemized and certified to before a justice of the peace, and $1.00 for each immigrant sixteen years of age and over settled by them in their respective counties. Their duties, under the direction of the chief of the bureau, are to procure the statistics and information necessary to properly set forth the facts, advantages and conditions of the counties, to perform such other duties appertaining to the work of the bureau as may be required and to procure options on farm lands at such prices and upon such terms as will be within the means of the immigrants desiring to locate upon them and to give them such assistance, care and information within their province as may be necessary.
The owners of lands upon which options have been thus secured shall upon the sale of the lands through the agency of the bureau, pay to the chief of the bureau a commission of 5 per cent. upon the gross amount of the sale, the sum thus obtained to be used in defraying the general expenses of the bureau and to be accounted for by the chief of the bureau in the itemized statement of receipts[51] and expenditures which he is at present required by law to publish in his report and to make to the State comptroller.
The chief of the bureau is authorized to visit such States and countries as in his judgment may be necessary, or to send an authorized agent, for the purpose of securing immigrants, having special regard to the character and responsibility of the immigrants. He is to adopt such means of advertising the State’s advantages as may commend themselves to his judgment, including such maps, charts, &c., as may be best calculated to illustrate the geographical, geological, topographical and physical features of the State, and to make contracts with railroads, steamship and other transportation companies and the masters of sailing vessels to secure a low rate of transportation for immigrants and to make the necessary arrangements for their temporary reception and accommodation upon their arrival until they can be located.
The bill provides the sum of $10,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, in addition to the present annual appropriation of the bureau to carry out the provisions of the law.
The people of the South have so long been accustomed to buying their meat from Northern and Western markets that the suggestion of packing-houses in the Southern cities is full of novelty and surprise. Packing-houses distributed over the Southern territory would be the incentive for farmers to raise more hogs and cattle and a better quality, and thus create a source of revenue now practically closed to them.
Are not our people convinced of the folly of selling their marketable live stock to drovers and buying their meat, thus paying the cost of transportation both ways, besides the profit each handler obtains?
Pork and beef raised on our own farms and cured in our own packing-houses would keep at home the large sums of money sent off annually for the meat supply of the people.
The grocerymen of Jackson purchase every year about $100,000 worth of meat and lard for consumers in this immediate section, and it is easily seen that a packing-house in Jackson would be a profitable industry. It would furnish a home market for hog and cattle-raisers, and stimulate the production of the best qualities. Every step in this direction is an important gain, and the subject deserves the earnest attention of our live and progressive citizens.—The Whig, Jackson, Tenn.
The vessels that are used in the business are chiefly schooner-rigged and vary in size from five to twenty-five tons burden. They carry crews ranging from five in number to fifteen for the largest vessels, nine men to the boat being the average number. The odd man in each case is the cook, who remains aboard to provide for the inner wants of the crew (generally amazingly large) and sails the craft while the balance are off in the small boats called dingeys in search of sponge. Each vessel is provided with poles of various lengths, from fifteen to fifty feet, to be used according to the depth of water in which they are working, which have attached to them three pronged hooks shaped like the teeth of a garden rake, somewhat heavier, with which the sponge are detached from the objects to which they are adhered and drawn into the dingey.
Two men are necessary to operate a dingey, one, the “hooker,” using the pole and the sculler keeping the boat in motion, following the directions of the hooker, where he leans over the side looking through an ordinary wooden bucket with a glass sealed in its bottom for the sponge, which, when discovered, is secured with the hooks.
The fisherman are most all former inhabitants of the islands; many of them have lived in the Bahamas, and there are about equal numbers of white men and negroes.
They are designated “Conchs” by the people living upon the mainland, from their making use of that shell animal for edible purposes when living upon their native islands.
A trip is of eight to ten weeks’ duration, unless it is mutually agreed by the owner and the crew that it shall end sooner, and a “broken” trip is one which does not pay expenses incurred, and does not happen often, except during a period of disaster like that just passed through.
When the trip is finished the catches are carried to market where the purchaser bids upon them at a certain price per bunch or for the lot, having previously estimate from his thorough knowledge of the goods their value in pounds.
Before sending them to the various markets they are first trimmed neatly and cleaned of all rock and shell, and then packed in bales of[52] convenient sizes in a compress which reduces them to small bulk and renders them easily handled.
Owing to the scarcity of the supply the demand is at present very great, and excellent prices are obtained.
The Newnan (Ga.) Cotton Mill (6300 spindles) will put on a night force to operate its mill, so that it can catch up with the orders with which it is now overrun.
Mr. L. C. Porter, proprietor of the Windsor hotel of Minneapolis, Minnesota, has decided to remove with his family to Wilmington, N. C. He has been in North Carolina since the 28th of December.
“I want to get away from the cold, long winters of the Northwest,” he said, “and I came here to prospect. I have been traveling North, East, South and West, and my observation is that you have the finest climate I have ever seen. If you hadn’t this advantage in climate and your fine opportunities for investment along with it, you wouldn’t catch me settling here.”
It is said that Mr. Porter has in hand a plan to establish a colony of Scandinavians in Eastern North Carolina. He expects to settle from fifty to 100 thrifty families somewhere near Wilmington. For twenty years he has been engaged in fostering colonies on the new lands of Wisconsin and Michigan.
A Young Men’s Business Association is to be organized at Knoxville, Tenn.
Savannah is getting up a commercial club.
Macon, Ga., expects to be visited about March 10 by a party of investors and home-seekers from Indiana, who have been induced by the Macon Bureau of Advertising & Information to go down on a prospecting trip.
The Commercial Club, of Anniston, Ala., is going to have an exhibit room in which to show the agricultural, mineral and industrial resources and products of Calhoun county.
Mr. Chappell Cory, secretary of the Birmingham Commercial Club, has taken great interest in the matter of immigration. Recently at a meeting of the State Agricultural Society, he delivered a very able address on the subject, which was exceedingly well received by the farmers before whom it was delivered. In the latter part of February, at his invitation, a number of the real estate men of Birmingham met to discuss the subject of immigration. Mr. H. D. Lane, commissioner of agriculture of the State, was present, and addressed the meeting. Following his speech there was a general discussion of the subject, after which the following resolution was adopted:
Resolved, That we cordially endorse the movement for immigration as outlined by Commissioner Lane, and pledge him our hearty co-operation, both as real estate men and as citizens of Birmingham and of Alabama.
At Atlanta, Ga., a $500,000 company has been formed to engage in establishing country banks wherever good openings are found.
A large party of prominent coal operators of Chicago and other Western cities have been examining Kentucky coal fields with a view to handling Kentucky coal on a large scale, and also of investing in coal properties.
A new water-power cotton mill will be built in South Carolina on Penny-Shoals, Tiger river, near Wellford, by a company recently incorporated as the Tuscapan Mills Co. Mr. C. E. Fleming, of Spartanburg, is at the head of the enterprise.
The public lands in Arkansas, government, State and railroad, aggregate more than 7,000,000 acres. There are over 4,000,000 acres of government lands subject to homestead entry. Any male citizen of the United States who is the head of a family, or over twenty-one years of age, is entitled to enter 160 acres of land by paying the following fees: For forty acres, $6; for eighty acres, $7; for 120 acres, $13; for 160 acres, $14. The State has also 1,200,000 acres which it will sell at $1.25 per acre, or any citizen over the age of twenty-one years, or the head of a family, can secure a donation of 160 acres by paying a fee of $10. In addition to this the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. has over 2,000,000 acres which it will sell on five years’ time at from $2 to $5 per acre, receiving notes in payment therefor, bearing 6 per cent. interest. During the last two years there have been donated to settlers 166,940 acres of land, and deeds made to 131,957 acres to settlers who had fulfilled the requirements of the law.
It is not generally known that nearly the whole of the extreme western part of Texas is fenced in and divided up into enormous pastures. There is one pasture, for instance,[53] traversed by the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad, that it takes a fast express train four hours and a quarter to cross. Another, in Dickens, Crosby and Emma counties, belonging to the Espinella Cattle Co., contains over 1,500,000 acres. If this pasture were in the shape of a square it would be about fifty miles each way, requiring therefore, 200 miles of fencing.
The Empire Plaid Mill, at High Point, N. C., is crowded with orders. The plant has been running on double time for some months until very recently.
From the annual report of the Board of Trade of Eufaula, Ala., of which Mr. C. B. Goetchius is secretary, it is learned that Eufaula has had a very active business year in spite of the hard times. The residences and stores that have been built during the year aggregate in cost about $50,000. As an indication of the comparative business done in 1892 and 1893, it is stated that the cash receipts at the railroad office were $8500 greater in 1893 than in 1892. During the recent period of financial and business disasters and failures there was not a single failure in Eufaula, and not a business house closed with the exception of one case of temporary embarrassment, which was quickly arranged.
The Liberty Woolen Manufacturing Co., of Bedford City, Va., has secured another contract from the government to make goods for the army. This time the order calls for 7000 broad yards at a cost of over $8000.
The last annual message of the mayor of Augusta, Ga., which has been printed in pamphlet form, is a very comprehensive review of the city’s affairs for 1893.
Sixty newspaper men from North Dakota are visiting Texas.
The Eufaula Cotton Mill Co., at Eufaula, Ala., has just completed an addition to its plant at a cost of $50,000. At the same place a new cotton mill is being built by another company—the Chewalla Cotton Mill Co.
The managers of the Seaboard Air Line have become greatly interested in the matter of immigration. Mr. R. C. Hoffman, of Baltimore, the president of the line, and Major J. C. Winder, the general manager, at Wilmington, N. C., are considering plans for procuring the settlement of Northern farmers in their territory. The Seaboard Air Line traverses a country suited in the highest degree for farming and stock raising, and especially for growing early fruits and vegetables.
The citizens of Tuskaloosa have organized “The Commercial Association of Tuskaloosa county.” The officers and directors are: President, A. F. Prince; Vice-president, George W. Christian; Secretary, Walter Guild. Board of Directors: Festus Fitts, Victor Friedman, W. C. Jemison, J. C. Harrison, A. S. Vandegraaff, H. F. Hill, George A. Searcy, Charles R. Maxwell, T. N. Hays.
The Richmond & Danville Railroad has issued a very handsomely illustrated book, “Snow Balls and Orange Blossoms,” a copy of which will be sent on application.
Mr. George W. Truitt, of LaGrange, Ga., has published a pamphlet called “Talks to the Farmers of Dixie.” It is full of valuable advice and suggestions.
The Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. has in hand contracts that will keep it busy for two years.
Several hundred laborers have been put to work on the Chesapeake Beach railway, which is to connect Washington, D. C., with a proposed resort on the Chesapeake bay in Southern Maryland. It seems remarkable that this superb body of water has been up to this time so little made use of by the cities of Washington and Baltimore. This new resort at Chesapeake Beach will be a boon to both cities. It will be within less than an hour’s ride of Washington, and will be readily and quickly accessible from Baltimore also.
The Chesapeake Beach railroad passes through a section of country admirably suited to truck gardening as well as general farming. Mr. Washington Danenhower, whose office is in the Loan & Trust building, Washington, has already had some negotiations looking to the locating of a colony of farmers from the Northwest along the line of the road.
The Sibley Manufacturing Co., of Augusta, Ga., has begun an extensive addition to its cotton mill. The output of the mill will be greatly increased.
It is astonishing to people who are unacquainted with the details of Florida business life to hear of the amount of business[54] done in the little towns in the interior and along the coast. Indeed, it surprises some of those who live here to see the summing up of the annual business done by individual firms in those towns, and if one didn’t in some way get at some tangible reason for these figures one would be disposed to question their correctness. But when one drives out into the surrounding country and sees the many orange groves and the many broad acres planted in vegetables a key is found that unlocks the situation.
In Florida, instead of large areas of land in cultivation, there are the native growths only dotted here and there with openings, and planted to fruits and vegetables. It requires but little stock to cultivate them and but few hands, comparatively speaking, to do the work. The crop raised on one acre of Florida soil on an average is equal to that of fifteen to twenty acres in cotton regions, and every dollar is for export, the grower receiving the cash for his crop, and then he reinvests it for the necessaries of his household and farm. There is where the volume of business done by the Florida merchants comes in.—Jacksonville Times-Union.
The cultivation of the castor bean may be attempted in Texas on a larger scale than heretofore. The United States Consul at Breslau, Germany, Mr. Frederick Opp, has been making inquiries about the climate and soil of Texas for Max Strahl, who is thinking of purchasing land in Bexar county for the purpose of raising the plants mentioned. According to Mr. Strahl’s statement, the castor plant requires much less rain than cotton; can be harvested in a much shorter space of time; requires only one-third of the amount of labor, and yields a much greater profit to the producer.
In a letter to the San Antonio Express Mr. Opp says: “I have sent a sample of the beans to the Department of Agriculture at Washington. I trust that Mr. Strahl will soon positively decide to settle in Texas and inaugurate the enterprise. He is an expert in castor plant growing and raises large quantities in India.”
The Rock Island & Texas Town Co. owns a 300 acre tract of land near Boyd, Texas, which has been divided into ten acre tracts for small fruit and vegetable farms.
The citizens of Nacogdoches, Texas, have organized a society, the purpose of which will be to induce immigration to Nacogdoches county and advance the general interests of that section. Lists of lands for sale, with prices, &c., and general information about the locality will be furnished on application. The president of the society is George H. Davidson.
Mr. Guy M. Bryan, a banker of Bryan, Texas, who owns large areas of property in Brazoria county, near Velasco on the Gulf coast, is arranging to bore artesian wells to flood a considerable area of ancient lake beds, which he will convert into extensive rice farms.
A report now being prepared by Mr. F. H. Newell, of the United States Geological Survey, on the condition, amount, and location of the public land still in the hands of the government, shows that there are about 600,000,000 acres of government lands. The report states, however, that all the vacant land remaining to the government in the West is either mountain country or else land which, owing to scanty rainfall or other conditions, is fit only for grazing.
The National Builders’ Association of the United States will hold its next convention in Baltimore in October, 1895. Mr. Noble H. Greager, of Baltimore, is president of the association; Mr. Charles A. Rupp, of Buffalo, first vice-president; Mr. James Meath, of Detroit, Mich., second vice-president; Mr. Wm. H. Sayward, of Boston, secretary, and Mr. George Tapperk, of Chicago, treasurer.
The Rock Hill Cotton Factory Co., of Rock Hill, S. C., which has heretofore made yarns only, is now adding 192 looms to its plant.
Mr. George C. Power, industrial commissioner of the Illinois Central and Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Companies, in an interview with a reporter of the New Orleans Picayune, said: “I have been down south of the Ohio river with two or three parties who are desirous of locating wood-working factories. Those parties have expressed themselves as being well pleased with the lumber found there and the facilities for handling it; also the welcome which had been given them by the Southern people. It is more than likely two of the parties will locate within the next week or ten days.
“I find that although the banks wherever I visited have plenty of money, yet they cannot loan it to advantage. At some places the loans to farmers are being curtailed, but in the[55] majority of places the applications for loans are fewer than in several previous years. The hotels are crowded with traveling salesmen, all of whom appear to be doing good business, selling principally dry goods, clothing, hats, caps, shoes and articles of similar character, and very few provisions. Many places are purchasing a better class of dry goods than they had in twenty years back. The merchants anticipate a very good spring trade.
“To show how small farmers are doing, I will cite one case. In the Yazoo Delta a farmer has grown all the provisions—corn and seed—for his new crop, and has sufficient left over to purchase a reaper for his coming hay crop. He has contracted for the produce of five acres of potatoes, seven acres of onions, and he will be self-supporting from this date forward. He is only one of a great many, and it seems to me that with fewer applications for loans and less demand for money to carry cotton, capital must seek other sources of employment. A large portion of it will most probably be invested in sound manufacturing industries, which will make a market for raw materials that are now to a great extent valueless.”
Charlotte, N. C., has grown tired of its inert Chamber of Commerce and proposes to organize a more active and progressive Board of Trade.
The Chamber of Commerce, of Huntsville, Ala., is receiving many inquiries from Northern farmers, who want to know about farming conditions around Huntsville.
It is stated that there are not enough houses at Columbia, S. C., to accommodate the increasing population, and that an excellent opportunity is given to erect an office building.
The secretary of the Bureau of Information of Newport News, Va., is in constant receipt of letters asking for information about Newport News and the adjacent country.
The Denison Land & Investment Co., of Denison, Tex., has elected A. P. Childs, of Bennington, Vt., President; E. H. Hanna, of Denison, Vice-president, and A. H. Coffin, of Denison, Treasurer.
C. S. Durling, of New York, was the originator of the refrigerator business in Florida, being the first man to run iced cars for the transportation of fruits and vegetables to New York. Before he began to do so berries could only be shipped by express, and only then when the weather was cool and the berries sour. Now Florida berries are sent North as late as May 1.
A refrigerator company will begin business at Gainesville, Fla., this week, and for the extra charge of ten cents per package they insure the arrival of truck at destination in the same condition as when put aboard the cars here.
Some of the cities of Tennessee have become interested in the idea of having an exposition to celebrate the State’s centennial. At a meeting of the Nashville Commercial Club a resolution was adopted providing for a committee of twenty-five members, composed of seven from the Commercial Club, six from the Board of Trade and three each from the Southern Engineering Association, the Historical Society and the Art Association, to make arrangements for a convention to be held in the city in March to discuss plans for an exposition.
The Board of Trade of Nashville, Tenn., is one of the few such concerns that has life and activity and progressiveness. Major A. W. Wills, the recently elected secretary, is a man full of zeal and energy, and he will make the board of trade a power in the advancement of Nashville and the surrounding country.
The stockholders of the Luna Cotton Mills, Fort Mill, S. C., have voted to extend the plant and add considerable new machinery, including 100 looms.
Within the last twelve month taxable values in Texas have increased $30,000,000.
The Richmond & Danville Railroad Co. has issued the following circular offering special inducements to settlers:
“The Richmond & Danville Railroad adopts this means as one of its many methods of bringing to the attention of prospectors and home-seekers the numerous advantages possessed by the territory which it traverses.
“Realizing that each section of this great land of ours is dependent to a certain extent upon the prosperity of the whole, we have no desire to depreciate any section, but to make[56] known the possibilities which are within the reach of those who contemplate a change.
“We have received hundreds of inquiries from parties located in the North and Northwest who desire information in regard to a milder and more congenial climate, the character of soil, etc. Those and all others who may desire information, we invite to visit points upon our lines which cover the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, and to induce immigration we will make to bona fide prospectors special concessions in rates from our Eastern junction points.
“The climate and products of the last four States above named are well known, but Virginia and North Carolina have not been so fortunate in this respect.
“The climate in these sister States (Virginia and North Carolina) is about the same, showing an average the year around of about 55° Fahrenheit, with no extreme heat or cold, which enables farmers to raise two or more crops upon the same land in one season. The soil is adapted to any crops which are raised in the Southern or Middle States, and is especially favorable for trucking, the profits of which are enhanced by reason of the close proximity to the best Eastern markets, viz: Lynchburg, Richmond, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. It is also admirably adapted to fruit and grape culture.
“Without discriminating in favor of any portion of either of these States, we feel at liberty to direct especial attention to the Blue Ridge section of North Carolina as being excellently adapted to the culture of fruit and grapes, the mountains and hillsides at many points being now covered by vineyards and orchards, which yield handsome revenues to their owners, while the rich valleys are utilized for cereals and tobacco.
“Considering the productive qualities of these Virginia and North Carolina lands, they may be had at most reasonable prices and on accommodating terms.
“In order to protect ourselves against imposition, it is necessary to throw some safeguard around the issuance of reduced rates for prospectors, as above indicated, and as all prospectors, before starting on a trip of this nature, correspond with some land agency or real estate agent, we will request all applicants for these reduced rates to obtain identification at the hands of such agent or land agency as they may have corresponded with.”
Inquiries may be addressed to W. A. Turk, general passenger agent, 1300 Pennsylvania avenue, Washington, D. C.
The Southern Pacific Railroad Co.’s bridge to be built across the Mississippi river at New Orleans, La., will, it is believed, be the largest steel railroad bridge in the world, considering the quantity of metal used in its construction and its length. It will be a double-track bridge about 10,500 feet long. The approach spans will vary from twenty-five to 150 feet in length, according to the height of the towers. The main river bridge will be built on the cantilever principle, and will be 1070 feet in length, with spans of 608 feet on either side. The pier foundations will extend from a point eighty feet below the bottom of the river, and will be sunk by open dredging. The estimated weight of metal required is 25,000 tons, or 50,000,000 pounds. The cost will be about $5,000,000.
The bridge will give the Southern Pacific system an all-rail entrance into New Orleans, and form a most important link in railroad communication between Texas and the Southwest and the Gulf States east of the Mississippi river.
The largest railroad bridge completed is over the Firth of Forth in Scotland. The main structure is 5330 feet long, but the approaches are said to be shorter than the New Orleans bridge.
In two suits recently brought against the Texas & Pacific road, a New Orleans judge has rendered a decision that is of very general interest. The decision in brief is that a railroad is bound by the admissions contained in the bill of lading just as the shipper is bound by the terms. Several weeks ago two suits, exactly the same except for the amounts involved and the complainants’ identity, were filed against the Texas & Pacific road. In both damages was asked for cotton received in a damaged condition, which the bill of lading sets forth had been received by the road in good condition.
In both cases the plaintiffs introduced the bills of lading in evidence. They showed by the signature of the authorized agents of the road that the cotton had been received by the road for shipment in good condition. The[57] road in its defense attempted to prove that the cotton was received in the same condition as when delivered, and that it had not been damaged in transportation.
The plaintiffs both proved that upon the receipt of the bills of lading, specifying that the cotton had been received by the road in good condition, they had paid for it by sight drafts in favor of the shippers.
In his decisions, both of which were the same, the judge held that evidence to disapprove the statements contained in the road’s bill of lading was inadmissible, and that the bill of lading placed the responsibility for the condition of the cotton with the road. For these reasons judgment in both cases was for the plaintiff. The conclusion of the court was that when the consignee pays by sight draft upon the averment of the bill of lading evidence that the goods were not received in good condition is not admissible.
It is stated that in furtherance of a plan to shorten the distance between St. Louis and points in Western Texas and Mexico, a syndicate has been formed to complete the Red River & Southwestern road, which is projected from a point on the Rock Island road in the Indian Territory through Western Texas to San Angelo, to connect with the Southern Pacific at Spotswood Junction. It is estimated that the new route would shorten the distance between Mexico and St. Louis fully 600 miles, while points in Southwestern Texas will be 200 miles nearer the latter city.
C. W. Cheers, formerly assistant general freight agent in Birmingham of the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham, but who resigned on January 1, has been appointed general freight and passenger agent of the Savannah, Americus & Montgomery, with headquarters at Americus.
Much interest has been aroused by the bills pending in the Virginia legislature to incorporate the Richmond & Northern and Richmond & Manassas roads. The former is claimed to be a projected road from Richmond to Fredericksburg, and the latter between Richmond and Manassas. Either would form part of a line from Richmond very nearly to Washington, and it is intimated that the Baltimore & Ohio may be interested in one.
It is stated that the Baltimore & Ohio is preparing to build its branch road from a point north of Georgetown, D. C., to Fairfax C. H., Va., on which work was begun some time ago, but suspended for some unknown cause. Fairfax is but a short distance from the Richmond & Danville road, with which the Baltimore & Ohio has close relations, and it is evident that the building of this branch means a connection with the Richmond & Danville.
The Norfolk & Western road is also securing the necessary legislation to enter Washington.
One of the indications of the rapidly-developing trade between the North and South is the establishment of a fast through freight from New York to the South by the Atlantic Coast Line. Freight under the new regulation, no matter how small the consignment, is rushed through from the North without delay. With each succeeding season this service has been expanded and improved, keeping pace with the development of the industries which produced it, until finally it has reached a point of usefulness and perfection upon which it would be difficult to improve. Until the present season, however, this special service has been confined to a northward-going schedule, but lately it has become apparent that the demand for a similar service from the North to the South was daily becoming more and more urgent. The Atlantic Coast Dispatch has also established a line of refrigerator cars out of New York for Charleston, the service being designed to furnish the safest and most expeditious transportation for all southward-going perishable freight. These cars will prove of especial advantage to the large shippers of apples, butter and other perishable articles.
It is believed that the Richmond & Danville’s present management will soon secure a seaboard outlet at Norfolk or Portsmouth, either by acquiring the Atlantic & Danville, which, as stated elsewhere, is to be purchased by the English bondholders at foreclosure sale and reorganized, or by building a new line. The plans of a new company which has been formed to build an extension of the Atlantic & Danville from Danville to Bristol, Tenn., passing through rich and undeveloped coal and ore lands, are told of elsewhere. The building of the proposed Virginia Seaboard & Western road, and the control of the Atlantic & Danville by the Richmond & Danville, would give the latter not only a new seaboard terminus, but also a large[58] coal, timber and ore traffic from Tennessee and Virginia, as well as establish a new route from Tennessee, Kentucky and the Northwest to the Atlantic.
The projectors of the Gulf & Interstate Railroad to extend from North Dakota to the Gulf of Mexico have secured an option on property at Port Bolivar, on Galveston bay, opposite Galveston, Texas, with a view to making that the terminus of the road.
The New York, Texas & Mexican and the Gulf, Western Texas & Pacific roads, both parts of the Southern Pacific system, have elected the following-named officers: President, J. Kruttschnitt; vice-president, W. S. Hoskins; secretary, B. M. Smith; treasurer, W. J. Craig.
A movement is on foot to establish a steamship line between Jacksonville, Fla., and Providence, R. I.
The Baltimore & Ohio is said to be planning to extend its Valley division from Lexington to Roanoke.
The Clyde Steamship Co. is considering an extension of its service to New Orleans.
Business on the Norfolk & Southern is developing to such an extent in North Carolina that the company has decided to establish six new stations in that State.
The Illinois Central Railroad is exhibiting great energy in the matter of inducing immigration to the South. Mr. E. P. Skene, land commissioner of the road, at Chicago, Captain J. F. Merry, Manchester, Iowa, assistant passenger agent, Mr. J. M. Eberle, of Chicago, land and immigration agent, Mr. C. W. McGinnes, land commissioner of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad, located at Memphis, Mr. J. T. Savage, division superintendent of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad, at Greenville, Miss., are all giving active and comprehensive attention to this work.
Mr. C. J. Haile, the general passenger agent of the Central Railroad, of Georgia, is taking advantage of the excursion rates offered to prospectors, by authority of the Southern Passenger Association, to distribute in the Northwest circulars setting forth the agricultural attractions of the country tributary to his roads. Mr. Haile is an enterprising and progressive railroad man, and fully comprehends the value of having the country traversed by his road thickly populated by Northern farmers.
Mr. W. C. Rinearson, general passenger agent of the Queen & Crescent route, is trying to arrange with the Southern Passenger Association to have tickets for his line, via Chattanooga, carry the privilege of stopping over at Chattanooga, so that travelers may have an opportunity of seeing Lookout Mountain, the National Military Park and other Chattanooga sights.
At the request of Col. C. P. Atmore, general passenger agent of the Louisville & Nashville Road, the passenger agents of roads having interests at Memphis, Tenn., met in that city February 14, to arrange a passenger association.
At a meeting of the truck farmers, held at Chattanooga, S. C., February 19, to consider the matter of transportation of vegetables and fruits to New York, a member had this to say in praise of the famous Old Dominion line of steamers:
“They have fast steamers especially constructed for carrying highly perishable freights; they have ample tonnage for handling all the business that comes to them, and their deliveries in New York are not only convenient to the trade, but are made more rapidly than any other line with whom we do business.
“In addition to their already large fleet they are about to launch two splendid new steamers, the “Jamestown” and “Yorktown,” which will be ready by April 10, and are expected to be the fastest coastwise steamers out of New York.
“Our experience with the Old Dominion Co. covers more than thirty years. During that time they have always been found willing to do all in their power to assist the grower both in improved service and in giving as low rates of freight as are consistent with fast transportation.”
The Atlantic Coast Line system has been one of the most liberal and progressive roads in the South in fostering the trucking business along its line. It has made a specialty of its truck traffic for many years, and to its enterprise is largely due the magnitude of the business which is now done out of Charleston.
The Middle Georgia & Atlanta road, from Atlanta to Milledgeville, has just been completed.[59] It is seventy-five miles shorter from Atlanta to Milledgeville by this route than by any other. Over forty miles of the line between Covington and Eatonton has no bonded debt whatever, $450,000 of the stock being taken and paid for by Georgia people. The ultimate destination of the line is Savannah. W. B. Thomas is general manager.
The Atlantic & Danville, which extends from Danville across Southern Virginia to the Seaboard, has attracted considerable interest from the fact that a company has been organized, composed largely of bondholders of the road, to build a line from Danville to Bristol, Tenn., to be called the Virginia Seaboard & Western. The Atlantic & Danville is to be sold by order of the court on April 3, and, it is expected, will be purchased by the bondholders. The new road, if built, will be about 115 miles long and connect with the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia system at Bristol. It would give the latter an outlet on the Atlantic seaboard and develop much mineral property of east Tennessee and southern Virginia, the product of which now has no means of reaching furnaces.
The great Four Seasons Hotel at Harrogate, Tenn., has been reopened.
Messrs. G. S. Atkins & Sons, proprietors of the Ocean Hotel at Asbury Park, N. J., have bought the Brock House at Enterprise, Fla., together with 2300 acres of adjacent land.
Messrs. Stephen Green, of Philadelphia, Martin Lane, of Wilmington, and Levi Z. Condon, of Baltimore, have organized the Luray Caverns Co. to operate the Luray Caverns, build a hotel, &c.
The proprietors of the San Marco hotel, of St. Augustine, Fla., as one method of entertaining their guests, allow them to pick, for use in the hotel, vegetables and fruits from the hotel garden, and on pleasant mornings many of the guests may be seen before breakfast picking radishes, peas, tomatoes, lettuce, &c., to be served at meals.
The business men of Columbia (S. C.) are talking about raising money to build a great hotel. Since the change in the Atlantic Coast line route, by which Columbia is put on the main line between Florida and the North, it is thought that a big resort hotel could do a profitable business.
The outlook for the coming season at Mountain Lake park, in Western Maryland, is very promising. Twenty or more new cottages will be built, and many of these have already been spoken for.
The Royal Poinciana hotel, of Lake Worth, Fla., which has been erected on the site of the old McCormick house, is doing a large business.
The Macon (Ga.) news is urging the building of a great hotel at Macon in emulation of Savannah and the Florida cities.
The Florentine hotel, at Huntington, W. Va., has passed into the hands of Messrs. L. H. Cox and R. F. Jones. Mr. Cox is from Louisville, Ky.; Mr. Jones formerly conducted the Joy house at Findlay, Ohio. They state that large improvements will be made.
The Hotel Indian River, at Rock Ledge, Fla., has 350 guests and expects to be crowded all through the month of March.
A new hotel is to be built at Charleston, S. C., at a cost of something like $450,000. It is to cover a block 150×545 feet. The plans provide for broad verandas adjoining the parlors and opening upon a garden space to be larger than any similar grounds owned by any hotel in the country.
Fort Worth, Texas, expects to have a new and first-class hotel.
The court has refused to confirm the recent sale of the Oglethorpe hotel at Brunswick, Ga., and has ordered a new sale.
A reader of the Southern States living at Florence, Ala., sent a copy of the January number to a friend in England, and has received from him the following very interesting and noteworthy letter, which we are permitted to publish:
“Many thanks to you for the January number of the magazine, “the Southern States,” which I received this morning. I presume you sent it, knowing that the interesting[60] letters relating to the subject of immigration to the Southern States so fully coincide with the views I have long held and have expressed to you concerning immigration from Great Britain to the South.
“Those views were verified again only a few days ago in the following manner: A friend of mine, who is a builder, wished to “talk with me about America,” rather a big order if he had considered a little, as having but limited means and a growing family he “thought of emigrating.” Where should he go? He spoke of many of the States I know well, but he knew nothing of the South, except that they had oranges and alligators in Florida. He was a fairly intelligent man, too. After a long conversation, the length of which you will understand when I tell you that I conducted my friend from the blinding blizzards of Nebraska to the genial sunshine of Alabama, I promised to get him some printed information from some of the emigration agents in London, so that he could form an idea as to the requirements, capabilities and resources of the South. Well, I tried to keep my promise, and called on numerous agents. I could obtain any amount of information about any part of Canada and the Western States, but in this great city of 6,000,000 of people, I, an experienced Londoner, could not obtain a line about Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana or any other Southern State, except Florida, and as I enjoyed life in the latter State for over three years I could describe a gopher or a “Florida cracker,” better than the agent could. Is it to be wondered at that people from England know the West and are ignorant of the beauties of the South? There, you have your Southern difficulty in a nutshell. We have over 35,000,000 of people on these little islands, very few of whom really know anything whatever of the Southern States. We have tens of thousands of men—small capitalists, manufacturers, skilled artizans, farmers, dairymen, market gardeners, and business men of all classes—who would give up the, in most cases, hopeless struggle here (hopeless as far as a comfortable competence is concerned), and cross over to the Southern States with their wives and families if they only knew the power of their skill, industry and perseverance in a country where those qualities will give an ampler, fairer and a more just reward than here. These people, the hewers of wood and drawers of water, who are the backbone of every prosperous country, require information, official, authoritative, reliable information, about Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, &c., and it is simply because such information is lacking, difficult to obtain, or unreliable when it is obtained, that so many go West and Northwest, whilst others, who could be induced to go South, stay and struggle on in the old rut for want of being waked up. I feel perfectly sure that if a bureau of information were established here in London and supplied with literature, maps, &c., descriptive of the Southern States, and properly advertised throughout Great Britain, the results would be quickly felt, whilst the expense would be infinitesimal compared with the benefits which would eventually accrue. Such a bureau, however, would have to be managed by a man (or men) of integrity and experience, who should be as unbiased as possible, and entirely free from sectional prejudice. An agent should have sufficient business tact to know that he would never benefit Georgia or Alabama by disparaging Colorado or California. I know that many agents in England try to detract from every other State, and every other section of a State, except the little spot they are for the time pecuniarily interested in getting settled up. Their aims are narrowed down to simply getting commissions on the railway and ocean tickets, and a small prearranged percentage on any little land purchase the immigrant may make from the agent in America, who has glowingly, and very, very often untruthfully, described.
“A Southern States bureau of information, such as I suggest for London, should be kept entirely free from the machinations of the unscrupulous land speculator, who, we all know, has in too many cases most seriously injured States and localities, simply to gain some small selfish end of his own. In my opinion the expenses of such a bureau of information should be borne by Southern railroad enterprise, and the London bureau should work in conjunction with established agencies, or sub-agencies, in all the large towns and cities in Great Britain, and also be in close touch with agencies in the United States, working with the same object, viz.: To induce immigration to the Southern States. The South as it really is can stand on its own merits, and is good enough for anybody, no matter what class—capitalists, cotton kings, iron masters, coal owners, farmers, or earnest, industrious artizans. The South can supply every requisite for all, from the raw material to the finished[61] product. These are a few of the facts that people here in England are ignorant of and should be informed about, whilst many of your own people in the North and Northwest are not much better informed on many points. A couple of summers ago I was laughed at at my hotel in New York because I remarked, “I cannot stand this sultry heat any longer; I’ll go South, where it is cooler.” I was considered a “bullheaded Britisher;” but I was right, anyhow, for it was cooler in Florence, Ala., than in New York!”
Mr. George W. Truitt, of LaGrange, Ga., one of the most advanced and successful of the present generation of progressive Georgia farmers, writes to the Southern States as follows:
“Noticing your commendable efforts to advertise the attractions and resources of the South and induce immigrants to seek homes in this country, I ask space in your columns for a review of some of the inducements this immediate section offers.
“This county—Troup—is in Western Georgia with the city of LaGrange as its county seat.
“LaGrange has a population of about 4,000 and is beautifully situated, 850 feet above sea level—on the Double Daily mail route from New York to New Orleans, and on the new and splendid line from Palatka, Fla., via Macon, Ga., to Birmingham, Ala. For healthfulness it has no superior. It has two of the best female colleges in the South, and an excellent male high school. The various religious denominations are represented by nine churches. The town is lighted by electricity and has a fine system of water works. Two strong banks furnish all necessary money for business enterprises. The famous “Terraces” or Terrell flower gardens are within a mile of the heart of the town. There is a $400,000 manufacturing plant here, embracing the LaGrange Cotton Mills, foundry and machine shops, oil mills and guano factory, all under our management.
“There are two carriage factories, a plow factory, planing mills, variety works and ice factory all inside the city limits. A canning factory will soon be erected, and a public school system will be established.
“LaGrange is surrounded by one of the best agricultural regions in Georgia.
“The farm lands are fertile, easily cultivated and yield abundantly under intelligent culture. There has not been anything like a failure of crops in twenty-five years through this section. The climate is all one could wish. Extreme heat and cold are rare. Our lands are rolling, with natural drainage; plenty of timber and pure water. Farmers can work their lands in half a day after the heaviest rains.
“The agricultural interest is undergoing a great and rapid change for the better. We have abandoned the one-crop idea.
“Since January 1st, 1894, there has not been sold at this point more than one car of Western corn and meat. It has not been many years since forty cars of those two items were sold in about the same time.
“Lands here can be bought at a bargain. Our largest land owners see the great importance of increasing our white population, and are in thorough accord and sympathy with any movement looking to an improvement in that direction, and stand with open hearts and friendly hands to welcome a sturdy thrifty class with a little money and plenty of will and energy.
“One attraction, of the many worthy of an immigrant’s consideration in this county, is the fact that the farmer has a home market for his surplus farm products. Within a few months from now there will be a demand, within a circle of fifteen miles around LaGrange from the cotton mills already in operation and nearing completion, for 10,000 more bales of cotton than the county raises; that means 30,000 bales; we raise annually about 20,000. Many thousand bales will be sent direct from the fields, as it is gathered, to the factory, where the spot cash will be in waiting for the cotton and the seed, the value of the seed amounting to, or adding to the cotton, at least one cent a pound. The mill operatives furnish a market for thousands of dollars’ worth of the farmers’ surplus food products.
“Clover and grasses grow to perfection here, the Bermuda grass especially, which furnishes nine months pasturage and yields bountifully of a hay second only in nutritive value to the purest timothy.
“Here are some facts and figures from actual experience in farming in this vicinity: $96 worth of Bermuda hay from one and a quarter acres; $60 worth of rust proof oats from one acre; $64 worth of corn from one acre; 2180 pounds lint cotton (a fine variety) from one acre, sold for $174.40 and the seed brought $120.
“We have a farmer in this county who twelve years ago was not worth over $1000 and who[62] now owns unencumbered property worth over $30,000; made it all farming; has never engaged in any other business.
“The thanks of every Southern man and woman are due you for the service you are doing them. And every respectable immigrant who is influenced by you to seek a home anywhere in this State, I know will not live here long before his obligations to you will be expressed.
“This country and any other will be truly great when the man who pushes the plow is landlord of the sod he turns.”
A real estate and immigration agent in Iowa writes to the Southern States as follows:
“I have been reading the Southern States, and am deeply interested in its work. I have been engaged in immigration work myself for thirty years, and I readily see some of the difficulties in the way of promoting immigration to the South. These can be readily overcome. With the use of proper methods, there is nothing in the way of bringing about a large movement from the Northern States to the South. The people of the North are finding it a matter of necessity to change their location, and this matter of moving to the South is of as much interest to them as it is to the people of the South. The matter rests largely with the railroad companies. With proper inducements and co-operation, agents could be gotten to go through the South on tours of inspection, whose reports on their return would influence large numbers of families in their communities. They would, of course, bear their own expenses, but they should have free transportation over the railroads. Facilities of this sort should, of course, be extended only to men of standing and reputation and influence at home, whose favorable report would lead to the removal of numbers of families in a body. I have taken parties of farmers into the West and the Northwest. I am in a position to explain to inquirers every feature of every county, for example, in Kansas and Nebraska. It would be easier to get them to go South; but I am sure of what information to give concerning Kansas and Nebraska, while my knowledge of the South is to some extent limited. I have a great many inquiries about the South. I am solicited now by a number of the best farmers of Iowa to go South and look the country over, get a list of lands for sale, prices, terms, etc., and find out for them what the conditions actually are. There is great interest in the South, and from all I hear and read it seems to be infinitely superior as a place for home-seekers to the far West, but the railroads and others interested have got to be as liberal in developing and fostering immigration efforts as the Western railroads have been, in order to bring about any extensive movement of this sort.”
Mr. W. M. Duncan, president of the Citizens Bank, Eureka Springs, Ark., writes to the Southern States as follows:
“In this section of Arkansas, commonly spoken of as North Arkansas, by which is meant the two northern tiers of counties across the State, the financial condition of the farmers is better than at any time during the past five years. They are raising increased food supplies, and yet have very materially decreased their debts and improved their properties. Very little cotton is grown north of the Boston mountains; corn, oats, rye and sorghum being the chief cereals, while cattle, hogs and sheep are raised to great advantage and profit. There has not been a failure of any crops in the last five years. The outlook for the farmers this year is very good, and that of itself makes the general business situation of the towns and cities in this section most favorable.
“The great financial depression through which the country has recently passed was felt less in this section of the Southwest than in any other, from all reports. The reason was, our farmers were all well stocked with fat marketable hogs and cattle, and were able thereby to quickly realize on the same and meet the calls on them from their bankers, made necessary by the foolish alarm from lack of confidence so generally experienced in all financial institutions.
“Our greatest industry, yet very small, fruit raising (especially apples), merits the attention of all persons looking for a location to engage in apple raising. The apples of North Arkansas have taken the first prizes at New Orleans, San Francisco, Boston and the World’s Fair. There are several thousand acres of young apple trees which will bear the first fruit during the coming year, and as many more trees have been planted during the past two years. Our climate is especially adapted for this.
“The present status of business with the merchants and general stores is a great deal better[63] than expected, and by early summer it is believed the return to the customary good trade will be accomplished.”
Mr. G. B. Randolph, of Anniston, Ala., writes to the Southern States as follows about his observations on recent trip to the Northwest: “I met many farmers and stock-raisers; also small fruit growers. (The latter can do but little in that section). I find a strong disposition among the people there on account of the severe winters and bad roads to come to a more agreeable climate. This of course is to be expected; people will naturally gravitate to a country holding out the greatest inducements. Here we not only have mild winters but our summers are not as hot as those in Illinois. A case of sunstroke is unheard of in this State. Our soil is productive and easily tilled. The character of our soil is red clay and sandy loam, and will produce anything that can be raised in the temperate zone. A great deal of attention is now being turned to fruit, vineyard and berry culture. Also we are proving this to be a fine country for tobacco culture. We have a remarkably healthy country. A case of lung trouble I never knew of originating here. As an indication of the attention being paid to this section, will say that within the past two days I have had inquiries for lands from the States of New York, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. Will be glad to answer any inquiries from prospective settlers. We have heretofore been greatly handicapped by excessive railroad rates to prospectors and immigrants; now I am glad to say the roads are showing a spirit of liberality, and we now have excursions the eighth of each month. Round-trip tickets for one fare good for twenty days are being sold by the different lines in the North for all points in this section.”
The Memphis Appeal-Avalanche says: “From present indications the labor problem in the Mississippi valley is about to solve itself. The answer is a simple one—the substitution of white labor for black.
“Everything seems to indicate that the shiftless, easy-going, debt-making negro, dependent all the year round on the man who is running him, will soon be a thing of the past. Of course there are some negroes who are exceptions to the rule—who pay their debts when they make them, who live economically, who know the value of a dollar—but they are few and far between.
“That the Mississippi Delta is the garden spot of the earth no one doubts. Its soil is ever responsive to the hand of the tiller. It is capable of raising the most diversified crops. As a cotton country it has no equal. All kinds of fruit flourish in its kindly temperature. The forest abounds in the most valuable woods. As a stock raising country it is equal to the blue grass region of Kentucky. All that the Delta needs is the hand of man to develop it, and man is beginning to realize that his labor will count for more there than anywhere else.
“As an example of the difference between Caucasian and negro labor, an instance which recently came to light is invaluable. A wealthy planter, owning a Delta farm, let part of it to some foreign families; the rest to negroes. The foreigners worked hard. They raised diversified crops. They lived as cheap as they could, and at the end of the year they had not only paid their rent, but they had their barns stocked with supplies and well-filled bank books. The negroes had not paid their rent and were heavily in debt, besides being dependent on outside help for supplies to run them through the year to come. The two classes of tenants were exactly opposite, the one representing independence, the other dependency.
“The Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad, recently purchased by the Illinois Central system, passes directly through the Delta. It owns a great deal of the land through which it passes, and is now making a systematic effort to settle it with immigrants from the Northwest and Europe. At present a large tract of land, known as the Bogue Phalia district, is receiving the benefit of most of this effort, and the families are rapidly moving in and taking possession.”
The Times-Union, Jacksonville, Fla., utters these profound truths: “Capital is like Providence in just one respect. It helps those who help themselves. It will take no risks in a community where the people brand investments as bad by refusing to take part in them. Capitalists know that men everywhere are looking for good investments, and an enterprise that does not secure home support is presumed to be a bad investment, no matter how much talk there is for the purpose of convincing[64] men to the contrary. The present is an auspicious time. Millions of dollars of Northern capital are seeking investment, and they will go to such places as prove rather than assert faith in the investments they offer.”
The Atlanta Constitution, in making editorial comment on an item in the Southern States, says:
“We contend that the South is the most promising section in the Union for enterprising farmers who will conduct their business in the right way. The Northern and Western farmers are beginning to see this. They are coming to the conclusion that it is short-sighted policy for them to purchase land at $100 or more per acre when they can buy plenty of good farming land in the South at from $5 to $25 per acre. A Northern farmer needs at least forty acres, and this will cost him in his own section $4000. This sum would buy him at $25 per acre a Southern farm of 160 acres, but he can easily find good land at much lower figures. Indeed, with $1500 or $2000 a farm of 150 or 200 acres can be purchased in a productive region. The Northern farmer who comes South and sticks to his diversified crop plan will keep out of debt and make money from the start. He will find, too, that he will enjoy here the same conveniences, facilities, institutions and society that he has always been accustomed to at home. He will suffer none of the drawbacks of moving to a new country among strangers. Our people are native Americans—98 per cent. of them—and the Americans from other sections who come here easily assimilate with them, and there is no sectional prejudice to make it unpleasant for strangers. When an immigrant makes it apparent that he is a good citizen his Southern neighbors readily extend the right hand of fellowship without asking him where he hails from.”
Here is the opinion of an editor who moved from Nebraska to Tennessee and is now editing the Advance of Harriman:
We came South from a State as fair as any under the sun. In some respects it is unequalled by any land we have ever seen. But that is not what makes a country desirable for a life-long, all-the-year-round residence.
With all the desirable qualities of Nebraska, and there is no Northern State that can excel or even equal it, there are some disadvantages that render it more than a hundred per cent. inferior to this country.
In the first place, there are no minerals, no timber, and, consequently, no manufacturing to supply a home market for produce. All surplus grain must go to a foreign market, and the distance and freight are so great, as to leave but very little for the farmer. Corn more frequently sells for less than twenty-five cents a bushel than it does for more than that, or even that figure.
Then the long winters and severe blizzards. We know what they are, for we battled with them for a good number of years, and are in a position to judge between the climate of that country and this.
Concerning the outlook for farming in this country, we are convinced of two facts.
The first is, that the same kind of farming given to this Southern soil that is given to the the land in the North will result in just as good crops. Of this we have no doubt whatever.
The second is, that while the farmers of the Northwest have to sell their produce for the lowest possible price, depending entirely on a foreign market, here, with our stores of undeveloped minerals, and immense quantities of timber to be manufactured, the farmer can depend on a good local market for the next hundred years.
The Age-Herald, Birmingham, Ala., says: “The disposition among Northern and Northwestern farmers to come South is every day becoming more apparent. They long for the salubrious climate and fertile soil of the South. When the South is covered by small farms owned by industrious white farmers, then it will blossom as the rose. The negro shows a disposition to get away from the farm. He is a social creature and loves the society and excitement of the town. He flocks to the furnaces and mills around the city. He can stand heat and enjoys the hot work of the furnaces. He makes more at the public works. He is thriftless and cannot manage, and can’t make farming pay. It is possible that there will be a considerable shifting of places between the whites and blacks, resulting in good to the entire country.”
The entire attention of the editor and contributors of this magazine is devoted to the promotion of the South as a farming region, and to the distribution of information which will at once attract immigrants, show them where they may with the best advantage locate, and tell them what to expect when they arrive. It is an undoubted fact that many thousands of acres of land of remarkable productive capacity are going begging for occupants in nearly all of the States south of Mason and Dixon’s line at very low prices, and it seems to be the case that the Northern or Eastern farmer of thrifty, economical and industrial habits and with a practical knowledge of his business will not fail to succeed in the South. “The South and Immigration” is the first article in the present issue, and it consists of letters from prominent railroad officials, showing the aids which are extended to immigrants by these organizations. The next paper is made up of letters from Southern banking institutions whose universal testimony it is that a steadily increasing financial prosperity is in progress throughout these States, and the “Letters from Northern and Western Farmers Giving Their Experience in the South” tend to prove the same statement. This magazine is serving as the medium for the carrying on of an enormous and an invaluable work.—Boston Herald.
It is a just and true mirror of the Southern country and an invaluable aid in its upbuilding and advertisement. The ignorance of the world concerning all things Southern is astonishing, and is fostered and increased by immigration agents and land companies by wilful and absurd misrepresentation concerning its people, its climate, its methods and everything connected with it viewed as a home for prospective settlers. Until recently the South has had no champion against this maligning. To combat these errors and let the world know the truth is the mission of the Southern States, and the steadily increasing influx of immigrants to this portion of the Union is in a great measure due to its intelligent and unceasing efforts.
The Southern States is devoting itself to a remarkable degree to illustrating the attractions of the South for farmers and manufacturers, and to this end is printing in its monthly numbers letters from farmers and railway managers throughout that section of the country, who show what the possibilities are in dealing with the soil and in gaining access to the markets of the nation. The forces of immigration have been chiefly directed to the North and West until a large portion of that country has been occupied; but the industrial resources of the South have only just been touched, not developed, and the railways are calling loudly for people who are ready to immigrate to different parts of the South and purchase small farms. At the same time a large number of the farmers give an account of their actual experience in the different Southern States as agriculturists.—Boston Herald.
The Southern States should meet with substantial endorsement from every Southerner interested in the upbuilding of his section.—Commercial, Union City, Tenn.
Mr. Wm. H. Edmonds has disposed of his interest in the Baltimore Telegram, which was rapidly increasing in popularity as one of the best literary weeklies in the country, and assumed the editorship and management of the Southern States, the monthly magazine started a few months since by the Baltimore Manufacturers’ Record. Mr. Edmonds is now engaged in a work thoroughly congenial to him, the main object of the Southern States magazine being identical with that he had mapped out for the Telegram when he purchased the paper. The Southern States under the new editor will, we are assured, rapidly increase in popularity, especially in the South. Mr. Edmonds is thoroughly identified with the progress of the South, material and industrial, and his exclusive devotion to the magazine work guarantees a publication of the highest literary character and extraordinary general interest. The Enquirer-Sun extends its best wishes to the new management.—Enquirer-Sun, Columbus, Ga.
The Southern States, an illustrated monthly magazine published in Baltimore, has[66] begun a movement which is calculated to do more good than anything heretofore projected to induce the sturdy farmers of the Northwest to seek more congenial homes in the Southern States where the rigors of climate are not present to obstruct and hinder the husbandman.—The Landmark, Norfolk, Va.
It is impossible to estimate the amount of good work that is being done for the South by that splendid magazine, the Southern States. In its January number “The South and Immigration” is discussed by the leading railroad officers, representing nearly 30,000 miles of Southern railroads, and this and the other subjects treated are handled in an eminently practical way.—The Post, Houston, Texas.
The Southern States, a magazine published by the Manufacturers’ Record Publishing Co., Baltimore, is doing more for the South than perhaps any one publication in this heaven-favored land.—The Times, Selma, Ala.
The News notes with pleasure the efforts of the Southern States to bring into favorable notice the great advantages the South possesses in the agricultural field, and every Southerner who loves the Southland should secure a copy of the Southern States for February, as it contains the experience of men who have given different localities in the South a fair trial in the agricultural line, and we are glad to see from the actual experience of men who are capable of judging that the South ranks second to no other section in farm production, and is way above them all in the successful production of fruit.—Chattanooga (Tenn.) News.
This magazine is doing a splendid work for the development of the South.—The Citizen, Jacksonville, Fla.
Every issue of the Southern States marks a literary and artistic improvement, which is most gratifying to the people of the South, in whose interests the magazine is published.—The Post, Houston, Texas.
One who has any thought of removing to the South will find this magazine a most valuable guide.—Western Farmer, Lafayette, Ind.