Southern States.

              THE
Southern States.
DECEMBER, 1894-
TEXAS AS COMPARED WITH THE NORTHWEST.
By S. P. Panton.
To one who has for years confined
his attention to the development of the
Northwestern States, and then turned it
to the South, the latter is a revelation
that dissipates many erroneous ideas.
During the last thirteen years the
writer took an active part in advertising
the attractions, resources and advantages
of the Northern tier of States from
Minnesota to the Pacific. That country
was effectively advertised by all possible
means, and emigration agents were kept
at work in several of the European
countries, as well as in the Eastern States
and the Canadian provinces.
It seemed quite natural that people
of Northern latitudes should seek homes
in a new country on similar latitudes,
and the agents were quite conscientious
in advising them to settle in Minnesota,
Dakota, Montana, Oregon, and Wash-ington.
There was a stretch of 2000
miles of new country, offering millions
of acres of free lands that would produce
the heaviest crops of the finest wheat
;
there were fortunes to be made in growing
live stock and wool, and bonanzas to be
found in the mineral ranges of Montana,
Idaho and Washington. All this was
true ; the people flocked in by tens of
thousands and found it so ; the appar-ently
desirable lands were located and
men who came from countries where the
possession of land conferred distinction,
were happy and proud in the ownership
of their quarter and half section estates.
For some time the agricultural and pas-toral
industries were profitable, and
many bonanzas were discovered in the
mountains, though the discoverers rarely
benefited thereby. But there were
drawbacks. A few years of great crops
and good prices in the blizzard belt of
Minnesota and Dakota were followed
by several seasons of early frosts that
caught the wheat in the milk ; other
years the rains set in at harvest time
and poured so continuously that the
wheat couldn't be thrashed, and sprouted
in the shock. The settlers were housed
up by blizzards all winter in their little
box cabins ; their children were mowed
down by the scourge of diptheria ; their
lives were a dead, colorless monotony,
varied by salt bacon three times a day
when they had it, and the dreary aspect of
treeless, blizzard-swept prairie proved
the possession of land there to be any-thing
but an unmixed blessing. When
there were good crops the elevator
charges and the freight charges for the
long haul to tidewater left but little com-pensation
for the hardships, the arduous
toil and the generally depressed lives
of the settlers in the blizzard belt.
There was but one crop—wheat, there-fore
but one pay-day in the year, and
that uncertain. The climatic eccentrici-ties
kept the crop in constant danger
and the farmer in constant anxiety,
and when bad seasons succeeded each
other, the farm, the crops in the ground
and even the implements were loaded
with mortgages at such rates of interest
that from that time forth the farmer was
a slave to his creditors and the sooner
he was sold out the better for him. A
few yeirs in that climate made almost
TEXAS AS COMPARED WITH THE NORTHWEST. 509
every settler long for something less
Arctic and resolve to strike for the
Pacific coast if he could ever raise the
money for the migration.
Montana is a much better country
with a much better climate, and until
recent years the demands of the mining
camps exceeded the supply of agricul-tural
products so that good prices were
always obtainable. The western half of
that State is an alternation of mountain
ranges and beautiful, fertile valleys, and
all conditions were much more favorable
there than in the blizzard belt. Of late,
however, the production of breadstuffs
has exceeded the home demand so the
and thence around the Horn to Eng-land,
so the receipts generally hang
about forty cents per bushel, and there
is a mighty slim profit in that.
Central Washington lies undeveloped
because water for irrigation cannot be
procured until capital can be induced to
embark in the construction of very ex-pensive
canals from the Columbia and
Snake rivers. From the Cascade
mountains to the coast the country is
covered with a dense growth of gigantic
timber that forbids the development of
agriculture to any great extent. The
beautiful valleys of Western Oregon
have been settled so lon^ that all desira-
A SOUTHWEST TEXAS HOME.
wheat sells at Chicago prices less freights,
or from 35 to 50 cents per bushel.
Within the past few months the farmers,
having concluded that the good old
times are gone for good, have been agi-tating
the reduction of wages to farm
labor on the ground that it is impossible
for them to continue the old rates.
The arable portions of Northern Idaho
and Eastern Washington are devoted
chiefly to wheat, the crop of the Palouse
country being so great that the farmers
have been figuring on building an inde-pendent
railroad to Puget Sound, 350
miles distant. The wheat goes by rail
to Portland or the Puget Sound ports,
ble lands are occupied and held at full
values.
To the new settler going into any
part of the Northwest the prospects are
not of the brightest. All good lands
within reasonable distances from the
railroads are owned and held at figures
that would be considered extortionate in
the South. Even at the greatest dis-tances
from transportation the lands
good for anything are owned by stock-growers,
if not by farmers. A man can-not
establish himself there now without
some capital. He should have at least
$5000 to buy and handle a good im-proved
quarter section, and then he will
TEXAS AS COMPARED WITH THE NORTHWEST. 511
find that he wants another, because the
system of summer fallowing found ne-cessary
in that country leaves only half
of the land to be cropped in any one
year, and eighty acres of grain will not
pay a sufficient income. Of late years
the prices of good improved lands in
Montana, Idaho, and Washington, have
been from $20 to $50 an acre in desir-able
localities, ranging still higher close
to the towns. It is pretty safe to say
that very few farms in the Northwest
will pay fair interest on $50 an acre, and
the purchaser of farm land there cannot
reasonablv expect much increase in
eral bonanzas ten, fifteen and even
twenty years ago, are still waiting for
the railroads to open up their particular
districts, and the capitalists to buy their
prospects at the fabulous valuations
they are still dreaming of. We have
noticed of late years that capital and
population have been attracted by simi-lar
resources elsewhere, and through
the South new cities have arisen and
surpassed in growth our business cen-ters,
situated in what we believed to be
the richest mineral region in the repub-lic.
A few of us have of late made some
PASTURE SCENE.
value over present prices. The boom
has gone by.
We of the Northwest have been
laboring under the impression that it
contained nearly all the attractions to
immigrants that were left; that the field
lor development was becoming so nar-rowed
that each succeeding year would
bring us a greater rush; that capital
would be attracted by our great deposits
of coal, iron and the more valuable metals;
that our towns would rapidly become
cities, and our prosperity would continue
indefinitely, on an increasing ratio. But
while there was and is development, it
is much slower than we expected, and
many of the men who discovered min-investigations,
which convince us that
there is a larger acreage of first-class
land, lying undeveloped, to be bought
at nominal figures, in the State of Texas
alone, than there is in the whole
Northwest. We have decided that
much of the land in Southwest Texas
may be made worth $500 an acre with
much less expenditure of time, labor,
and money than it would take to raise
the Northwestern lands to $40 an acre, for
the same reasons that have given im-proved
California lands values of $500
to $2000. We are satisfied that a man
with $1000. which would be just sufficient
to put him under mortgage in the
Northwest, can make a good, clean, in-
TEXAS AS COMPARED WITH THE NORTHWEST. 513
dependent start in Aransas, San Patri-cio
or adjacent counties with an absolute
certainty of maintaining himself in inde-pendence,
and in a few years enjoying
a permanent income rarely equaled on
any 320 acre farm in the Northwest.
We are satisfied that while the North-west
is rated a healthy country, this
section of the coast is much more so ; it
is absolutely free from malaria; pulmo-nary
and catarrhal complaints are al-most
unknown, and the children flourish
in perfect immunity from those scourges
of the North, scarlet fever and diphthe-ria.
In no other part of the country
have I found the people so unanimous-ly
contented with the climate, which is
of a nature to attract the people of the
North to keep cool in summer and
warm in winter. When I left the Yel-lowstone
last summer the mercury
registered 1 14 in the shade, and the sig-nal
service station at Buffalo, Wyo., re-ported
1
1
5
. I came to Southwest
Texas in August, and the highest tem-perature
since my arrival was 92 , while
it rarely reached 90 . The continual
sea breeze makes it very pleasant all
summer. Last winter (1893) I spent a
week in a mountain town when the
thermometers registered from 20 to
52 below zero. The coldest weather
here, when a norther was blowing, was
much the same as in a chinook, the warm
winter wind of the Northwest.
To one accustomed to the narrow
range of products in the Northwest the
possibilities here are bewildering. To
say that almost all the products of the
temperate zone will flourish here with
all sub-tropic and some tropical growths,
expresses a range far wider than our
knowledge. But we find that the truck
gardener can plant and mature vegeta-bles
at any time of year and ship them
North when there is such a dearth there
that high profits are assured ; that the
winter climate here favors the growth of
the crisp and succulent vegetables grown
at the North in summer, and the rest of
the year can be devoted to products not
grown North at any time. Having seen
ripe tomatoes at Christmas, green peas
in January and ripe strawberries in Feb-ruary,
let us look at the subtropical
products which include the orange,
lemon, lime, pomelo, shaddock, pome-granate,
fig, Japanese persimmon, and
the grapes of the Mediterranean, the
ginger, camphor, and cinamon trees,
the cassava, from which tapioca is made,
the great variety of valuable fibres,
the canaigre, for tanning fine leathers
for which there is a strong demand
throughout the civilized world, and
innumerable other plants of value.
Almost any one of these products intelli-gently
handled will pay several times
the profit per acre of the best crops in
the Northwest. This is, so far as
known, the only part of the republic
east of California where the finest
European grapes attain the greatest
perfection. As they ripen here from
four to six weeks earlier than in Califor-nia,
the viticulturists of this coast have
the run of the markets when there is no
competition, and their comparative prox-imity
to the body of consumers gives
them great advantages over the Califor-nians
that are permanent.
The supplv of vegetables and fruits
is as yet so inadequate to the demands
of Texas alone that the California fruits
and vegetables cut the most prominent
figure in Texan markets It will pay
better to produce the whole supply here
than to raise it 2000 miles away.
It is safe to say that an industrious
man who comes here with $1000, buys
ten acres of land for $200, devotes half
of it to vines and the rest to vegetables,
will find himself the possessor of a reli-able
income property in three years
;
and if he keeps some poultry, a gun,
and a fishing rod, he will have so little
to buy for himself and family that his
necessary cash outlay will hardly exceed
the annual fuel bill of the Northern
agriculturist.
THE NATIONALIZATION OF THE SOUTH.
By George F. Milton.
"The essence of a nation is that all the individuals
must have many things in common, and also that all
must have forgotten many things"
—
Ernest Kenan.
The development of our polity, from
a dependence on the State to the
supremacy of the people collectively,
has been slow in attainment. We little
realize the struggle which has marked
its progress. The historical, rather than
the legal view of the character and
intent of the Union has finally pre-vailed,
and the evolutionary theory of
constitional interpretation has been the
result.
The growth of this national tendency
has been immensely hastened by three
economic factors—foreign immigration,
domestic migration to the West, and the
development of manufacturing indus-tries.
It is unnecessary to dwell on the
non-participation in this movement
of the slave holding States before
the war. Although similarity of eco-nomic
interest had embodied them into
a homogeneous people long before the
sparks of national fire had burst into a
flame in the West, yet it was a unity of
purpose bent on one object alone—the
protection of an institution sectional in
extent. Therefore, the true national
idea was impossible.
Slavery was abolished. It now be-comes
an interesting question as to the
effect of that great structural change on
this people. It must be borne in mind
in considering this that the first influ-ences
the South faced on coming out of
a war as exhaustive of resources as it
was destructive of life, were retarding.
The bitterness of defeat and the repug-nance
to a union to which allegiance
was compulsory, had to be removed by
an application of mental and physical
energy to a material development which
. should wipe out the traces of the recent
subjugation. The negro problem, social,
civil and economic, had also to be set-tled
before progress could be assured.
But how trivial were these obstacles
compared with the grand advantage
given by the new idea as to labor! It
was now noble to work, and toil was
invested with a dignity before unknown.
The "poor white" was thus enabled to
enter the struggle against elimination
unhampered by the prejudice of his
race against labor, and his subsequent
mental, moral and intellectual advance-ment
has been the phenomenon of the
age. Joined with the ennobling of labor,
as a factor in the development of that
economic progress, which leads to the
full grasp of the national idea, was the
discovery of the availability of the
Appalachian mineral fields.
These great mountain regions stretch-ing
down through West Virginia, Vir-ginia,
Kentucky, Tennessee and Ala-bama,
furnished the wedge of economic
force to split and dissipate the elements
of the old structure by which the South
was chained helpless to one condition.
Here the people of the entire United
States met, combined interests, frater-nized
and commenced that advance
which was to make the South glad the
slave had been given freedom.
The five or more billion dollars losses
sustained by the war were soon to be
but the product of a few years' activity
of these industrial interests brought into
being by the necessities of a people
impoverished by that struggle.
The figures for pig iron alone for the
last decade will give some idea of the
great growth of these interests, the per-centage
of increase of output for the
South being 408 per cent, against 153
per cent, for the entire country.
How much greater this may be in the
future, after a recovery from the present
depression, can be imagined when it is
stated by a special commissioner,
appointed by the government, that with
THE NATIONALIZATION OF THE SOUTH. 5i5
the same wages the cost of production
of a ton of pig iron is $3.18 less in the
South than in the North.
This region of industrial energy,
stretching through the very heart of
the South, gave impetus to commercial
activity, and the result was the building
of the railroad systems necessary as the
arteries of distribution for the manu-factured
and agricultural products. The
people were thus enabled to mingle in
closer relationship with the rest of the
country and also a greater proportion
began to live in cities. The presence of
large bodies of people in close commu-nication
with each other, personally or
by means of the daily papers, causes a
wider popular expansion of grasp as to
the progress of the world and its inter-ests
and politics than can possibly be
effected in isolated communities. The
desire of the South has been to attain
that happy medium of moderately large,
actively manufacturing and commercial
towns, the centres of its rich farming
and industrial sections. That this ideal
is rapidly being reached is seen from
the fact that the urban population grew
from 1,616,095 in 18S0 to 2,567,053 in
1890, or 58.84 per cent, against an
increase of the entire population of 20.07
per cent.
These are the influences that have
been most important in bringing about
the changed purpose of the South's
progress. The ennobling of labor, the
development of mineral and manufac-turing
industries, the increased means of
communication, and the establishment
of large centres of industrial, commer-cial
and intellectual activity have pro-duced
a South which no longer fears
comparison. She has become a living
factor in the life of the nation and has
its diversity of interest and cosmopolitan
life. It is well known that slave labor
retarded the increase of population,
tended to the accumulation of wealth in
the hands of a few and restricted the
diffusion of education ; let us see the
effect of free labor in these three par-ticulars.
The abolition of slavery has increased
population proportionately. The gain
of the South from 1870 to 1890 has
been in step with the nation's for the
first time since the Revolution. The
increase was 61 per cent.; that of the
entire country 60 per cent. The gain of
the South was 14 per cent, greater than
that of the New England States and 17
per cent, greater than that of the Middle
States. Cotton is no longer the sole
dependence. Great as has been the
increase in the production of that staple
from 4,700,000 bales in 1870, to 8,500,-
000 bales in 1890, other agricultural
products have made even larger "gains.
In 1890 this section raised 81,000,000
bushels of wheat, 641,000,000 bushels
of corn, 100,000,000 bushels of oats,
128,000,000 pounds of rice and 11,000
tons of hemp. The tobacco yield is
worth $35,000,000 annually, and the
sugar refineries of Louisiana have
doubled their product since 1870.
The increase of cotton manuiactured
has been 750 per cent, since 1870. In
that year the North spun nine yards to
the South's one. Now the proportion
is reduced to three to one. Thus if
thirty years after one of the most disas-trous
wars known in modern times, we
look at the land left helpless, what do
we find?
The total receipts from State taxation
for 1890 for the farmer slave States
were 28.49 per cent, of that of all the
States. The internal revenue collected
was 29.80 per cent. The value of their
agricultural product was 35.90 per
cent. The railroad mileage was 32 per
cent. Their population was : entire,
35.51 per cent.; white, 28.50 per cent.
The increase of taxable wealth for
the decade was 41 per cent.; that of the
population was 20.07 per cent. The
South Central section alone containing
the manufacturing belt gained 72.61
per cent, in wealth, being a greater
proportionate increase than that
of any other section. Even the
direct trade, so much of which ot
the entire country has been absorbed
by New York city, has recently had
a wonderful development, in the last
three years the increase being in the
South 33 per cent., against 20 per cent,
for the nation. And more important still
this progress is not the result of any sud-den
inflation but, as is shown by the expe-rience
during the recent panic, it is more
5i6 THE NATIONALIZATION OF THE SOUTH.
stable than that of any other section
with the exception perhaps of the North
Atlantic. There were less commercial
and bank failures in the South and a
smaller decrease in the- volume of busi-ness,
as is shown by the exchanges, and
the conditions point to a more rapid
recovery there than elsewhere. Natu-rally
this economic advance has not
taken place without a tremendous revo-lution
in the social and intellectual con-dition'.
Especially has this been true of
the education of the masses. The per-centage
of attendance at the public
schools shows a greater increase in the
South than in any other section, the
enrollment having advanced in the last
decade Irom 32 per cent, to 59 per cent.
in the South Atlantic, and from 38 per
cent, to 60 per cent, in the South Cen-tral
States, while the increase in the
entire United States was from 62 per
cent, to 68 per cent. The attendance at
schools is thus nearly as great propor-tionately
as in the other sections, the
difference existing being due to the
condition of the negro race who compose
one-third the population, a large pro-portion
of whom require the labor of
their children during much of the school
age. The efforts to educate the negro
are fully as earnest as with the whites,
and considering the relative economic
conditions the percentages of enrollment,
52.08 per cent, and 67.83 per cent, re-spectively,
are very close. These three
great developments, of population, of
wealth and diversified interests, and of
diffused learning, have struck the death
blow to sectionalism and prejudice.
The influence of questions common
with the rest of the nation has destroyed
that unity of feeling which made a rela-tively
weak people so hard to conquer.
This is in verity the national idea. It
need not invest the central government
with monarchical powers or destroy the
autonomy of the State, but it must,
rather by a diversity of interests in all
the sections, close communication between
them, and widely diffused education,
remove the traditional prejudices and
render sectional feeling impossible.
The only bar to further rapid progress
is the negro. Although in industrial
pursuits his advancement has been very
encouraging, in the agricultural regions
he hinders materially. The great need
is an intelligent class of foreign small
farmers. The negro thrown in close
contact with these would probably learn
the better methods and catch their pro-gressive
spirit and be elevated in condi-tion
as he has been under similar cir-cumstances,
in the manufacturing and
mineral regions.
The South has grown beyond section-alism.
The sole relics of it are those
occasional ruins of the olden time
—
reminders of a past still revered but no
longer regretted. The traveler may
soon journey from one end of the
United States to the other and observe
no material difference in the character
and life of the people, except such as
may be the result of physical conditions.
The school, the railroad, the printing
press, and diversified industries are the
factors which eliminate past divergencies
and weld sections together with mutual
interest and respect. The South is fast
approaching the period when it will be,
like the West, a mere geographical
region. It is even now as little sec-tional
as New England. This can be
exemplified in its political representation.
It must be remembered that as long as
the negro votes actively as a unit there
will be a "solid South" as far as party
is concerned ; but even with that, in
the Fifty-First Congress the percentage
of republicans from the South was
20.64, while the percentage of demo-crats
from New England was only n.54.
But this majority in the South differs
widely on great questions, as shown in the
debate on the silver repeal bill last fall and
later on the tariff question, while New-
England's representation was practically
united on both. AH this shows the
absence of sectionalism, and it can be
traced to the great economic develop-ment
on a new basis of conditions.
What cannot be predicted for the
future? The South's progress is now
on the same plane and equal to that of
the nation. Its national idea is the pure
product of a truly American develop-ment,
and while it still retains those
principles of restraint against changes
of our institutions, which are our best
protection against anarchy, in material
THE NATIONALIZATION OF THE SOUTH 5i7
and intellectual structure it is essentially
a "New South."
Tradition of a past eminence in cer-tain
respects is still cherished, but there
is an even greater feeling of joy over
present conditions.
AS TO GERMAN IMMIGRATION OF A HIGHER GRADE.
By C. M. Marshal!.
When the Western railways were in
course of construction they had at their
command the land and credit of the
nation. With one hand they offered
cheap homesteads to the settler, with the
other they paid liberal wages to the
laborer, thus enabling the newcomer to
pay his way while the home was build-ing
and the farm getting under way, and
the completion of the railroads added
new value to their lands.
These conditions do not now exist in
the South. Cheap lands are for sale
along our completed railroads, cheap
especially in large tracts, but the pur-chaser
must himself in most cases bring
the means to improve his land, stock
his farm and provide for his living at
the start. But small holdings and capi-tal
rarely go together.
There is in England and Ger-many,
among the well-to-do and
best classes, the old Saxon love for
agriculture and country life ; in spite
of unremunerative prices of farm pro-duce
and consequent depression of land
values, there is in these countries a
demand for land far in excess of the
supply.
Englishmen, as a rule, prefer their
own colonies. Germans have no outlet
but the United States, and the class
referred to will prefer to go where they
can acquire large estates, where abun-dant
labor is obtainable and where capi-tal
and labor will be safely invested.
During the past decade agriculture in
Prussia has been so unprofitable that
even the privileged Gittsbesitzer, land-owner
or planter can rarely start more
than one son in the same business. Vet
a sum quite insufficient to purchase a
desirable farm in Prussia would be ample
capital to buy and stock and re-establish
in its old time fertility, order and beauty,
one of the many charming plantations
of the South.
By birth, bringing up and surround-ings,
these men are fitted for the planters'
life. Tastes and habits would render
them congenial neighbors and useful
citizens. They would give work to our
laborers, black and white, and by close
attention and intelligent management
prove that agriculture at present prices
is the safest profitable investment in the
South ; and thus encourage our own
people to similar enterprise.
At the present, this class in Germany
knows little or nothing of our country.
The professional emigration agent does
not reach it. His concern is with the
laborer—the steerage passenger. The
commercial traveler, the merchant or
casual visitor to this country does not
often get beyond the large cities of the
North and West, or the seaports in the
South.
The German planter himself rarely tra-vels
beyond the confines of the "Father-land,"
and from his own press he learns
nothing of the true state of this country,
least of all the South. The prevalent in-formation
about us consists in distorting
the accidents of a young country and
of a free government into dismal or
grotesque shapes.
CONDITION OF THE FARMERS OF THE SOUTH.
By IV. L. Glessner.
To fully understand and appreciate
the present financial condition of the
farmers of the cotton raising section of
the South, it is necessary to go back
some years and review the causes which
have led to that condition. Previous to
the war every cotton planter raised on
his own plantation all supplies of pro-visions
for himself and slaves, and pur-chased
only his groceries and clotning.
During those years cotton was at sever-al
periods as low as it is now, but those
low prices, while they diminished the
cash income of the planter, caused no
financial distress. At the close of the
war cotton had so advanced in price
that the planters devoted their entire at-tention
and acreage to the raising of
cotton, arguing that it was cheaper to
buy provisions than raise them, and for
some years this was measurably true.
Cotton gradually declined in price until
it would no longer pay all the expenses
of the plantation and the planters ran
behind and were forced to mortgage
their crops for advances from the ware-housemen
hoping each year that the
price of their product would advance in
price sufficient to pay them out. They
seemed to have forgot that they could
raise their own corn and meat, and
bought these articles on credit at an
enormous advance upon cash prices.
In the meantime commercial fertilizers
had been introduced, and in the hope of
increasing his product of cotton, the
planter bought them in large quan-tities,
running in debt for them.
For a number of years cotton re-mained
at an average price of ten
cents a pound and the planters
managed to make ends meet by increas-ing
their debt a little each year. When
cotton fell below ten cents the planters
saw ruin staring them in the face, and
then there came an organization known
as the "Farmer's Alliance," which
taught them principles of economy, and
the planters learned to buy less and
combined to buy at less prices. They
also began to raise their own corn and
meat, and diversified their crops to the
extent that they virtually "lived at
home." Of course, this economy on
the part of the farmers meant less busi-ness
for the merchants, and their trade
fell off. Many of the "supply" stores,
which had been furnishing the farmers
with their provisions on time at exorbi-tant
prices, were closed up and their
places were supplied by "cash" stores,
which did less business at less profit.
The fact that the South was buying less
from Northern markets no doubt gave
the impression to Northern dealers that
the South was growing poorer ; but
such was not the fact—it was growing
richer, as was evidenced by the fact that
the South was in a better condition to
meet the recent financial depression, and
did meet it better than the North.
As a result of their enforced economy
and diversification of crops, the farmers
of Middle and South Georgia are in a
better financial condition to-day, with
cotton at five cents per pound, than
they were some years ago with cotton at
ten cents. Ten-cent cotton had to pay
for all the provisions used upon the
plantation, and these provisions being
bought on credit it had to pay a fifty
per cent, advance upon cash prices. I
have known ten- cent cotton to have to
pay $1.25 per bushel for corn, 20 cents
per pound for meat, and $30 per ton
for hay. Now these articles are all
raised at home, and with the same labor
and teams that produce the cotton crop.
The farmers have not materially cut
down their acreage of cotton, as crop
reports will show, but have simply put
out corn, peas, potatoes, cane, etc., in
addition, and thereby have made it pos-sible
to raise their own meat. The cot-
51s
CONDITION OF THE FARMERS OF THE SOUTH 519
ton crop is now a cash crop—it no
longer has to buy bread and meat—and
while the price is low there is really
more profit in it to the farmer than when
the price was higher. The official
records, the bank statements, and the
reports of the loan companies, show
that the farmers of the South are in a
better financial condition today than
they have been in years. There are
fewer mortgages, their obligations are
met more promptly, and they have been
gradually paying off the loans which
they made some years ago. A collector
for a fertilizer factory told me a couple
of weeks ago that his collections had
never been better than they were this
season ; that he collected over ninety
per cent, of his contracts, and these
contracts were all made with farmers last
spring.
The Northern farmer may possibly
not understand how it is that the acre-age
of cotton has not decreased and the
acreage of other products increased,
with the same labor, as such a condition
would not be possible in his section. In
the first place he must remember that
there is not a month in the year in
which work cannot be done on the farm
in South Georgia. The farmer sows his
oats, wheat and rye any time from the
first of October to the middle of Dec-ember.
He breaks his ground for corn
and cotton in January and February.
He plants his corn in March and his cot-ton
in April. While his cotton is com-ing
up he can cultivate his corn, and
then go into his cotton, working the
crops alternately. Between his rows of
corn he plants cow peas and ground
peas, which fatten his hogs. His corn
is made by the first of July. The soil
is easily cultivated and there are few
days when it is too wet to put a plow
in the field. A crop of voluntary
grass springs up after oats and melons,
which will make from one to two tons
of hay per acre. The farmer is not
forced to plant all his crops within two
weeks, for he has no fear of early frosts
in the fall, and as a consequence he can
plant a larger acreage with the same
force. I make these explanations to
show why a Southern farmer can
make a profit by diversification of
crops even at a low price. Some
of these advantages are becoming
known to Northern farmers, and the re-sult
is a movement of that class to the
South. I have had within the past six
months not only more inquiries regard-ing
the resources of the section traversed
by the Georgia Southern and Florida
Railroad, but have located more settlers,
and the outlook is good for a very large
immigration within the coming year.
All of our new settlers are from the
Northern States—men who have become
tired of the rigorous winters of the
North, and the constant struggle of try-ing
to raise enough in five months to
support them the other seven. Those
who have spent a year in South Geor-gia
are well satisfied with the change
and are urging their relations and
friends to join them.
I have not spoken of the profits of
fruit-growing, for it is a comparatively
new industry in the South, but it is as-suming
large proportions and within the
next three years will bring into our sec-tion
millions of dollars, with a very
small outaly.
The fact that our people have be-come
fully awakened to the importance
of diversifying their industries, and have
become grounded in the principles of
economy, betokens a prosperous future
for our section.
I have heard but little growling about
hard times in Georgia, except from
drummers, who complain about small
sales. It is true that our people are not
spending as much money as they did
years ago, for the reason that they have
no need to do so, and in that fact lies
their prosperity and contentment.
THE GAME OF THE DISMAL SWAMP.
By Frank A. Hevivood.
The Dismal Swamp in Eastern Vir-ginia
and North Carolina contains over
100,000 acres. It is for the most part
covered with a dense growth of cypress,
juniper, cedar, gum, beech and oak.
Several small streams flow through it
and Lake Drummond, a body of water
containing about twenty square miles,
is in the center.
The Dismal Swamp is a paradise for
the lover of sport. It contains number-less
resorts for bear and deer. The enor-mous
lake abounds with fish. The
robbins and blackbirds of the North
winter on the banks of the canals. The
tempting clearings offer inducements to
the partridge, woodcock, squirrel, rabbit,
and other small game.
The bear has a prominent place in
the Dismal Swamp, from its greater
abundance and the quality of its flesh.
He is more easily found, too, than his
brethren of other sections. The deer of
the swamp afford a wider field for gen-uine
sport than those of other localities.
The opossum and coon afford attrac-tions
for the lover of fun, and there are
many people who can recapitulate vol-umes
of exploits among the birds.
Those whose ideas concerning bears
are gained from works of fiction have
no adequate idea of the lord of the
Dismal Swamp. The bear is not brave.
He is cowardly, weak, dirty, and a prey
to an inordinate appetite for pig. At
very few periods can he be honestly
called courageous when in the presence
of man, but his strength is enormous,
and in speed he will oftentimes rival an
Arabian horse. The swiftness and
power with which he uses his claws
while capturing a "cattle- beast," or pig,
or while destroying a beehive is incred-ible.
But as to real genuine bravery,
when becoming tired of being hunted,
he tries to infuse variety into the affair
by hunting his hunter, the bear does not
possess it. The bear usually confines
himself to the dense growths of reeds
by day, sallying forth by night to the
farmers' beehives, or to the haunts of
the "razor back." Occasionally a bear
will spring on the back of a "cattle-beast"
burying his teeth in the frightened
animal's neck and using his claws to
catch at the trees and brush through
which his victim dashes.
For bear hunting in the Dismal
Swamp there are two requisites besides
the bear—men with guns and a man on
a horse. The first- named halt on the
border of a jungle where a bear is
supposed to be hid, while the other
drives the inhabitants of the jungle
towards them. The master of the hunt
posts the sportsmen here and there in
pairs, so that each hunter has an especial
rival against whom he is pitted and
whom he must, if possible, forestall in
shooting the bear. When the hunters
are posted the horseman advances into
the jungle, and with loud shouts starts
the game. A little later and the bear
shambles out directly into the arms
of his enemies. Another method of
shooting the bear is to tie a pig by
the leg to a tree in the "open" and in
the evening the hunter takes a position
near by, employing a negro boy to keep
the pig awake. Four drachms of good
powder, an ounce and a-half of buckshot
and a little attention to business will
usually settle the bear question.
Lake Drummond is, and has been for
years, a favorite spot for deer. They
are only hunted with dogs, a still hunter
being looked upon with aversion by the
natives, and he is lucky if he escapes
without having the tails of his shirt
nailed to a tree as a warning to the next
tenderfoot who imagines that still hunt-ing
is the only way to shoot deer.
The "cattle-beast" is the local name
given to the sturdy wild cattle which
THE GAME OF THE DISMAL SWAMP. 521
roam about through the fastnesses of
the swa.np. They are small undersized
animals and as shy as a deer. When
the farmer wishes a fresh beef he takes
his gun and his dogs and runs the ani-mal
to a stand-still. The "cattle-beast"
is favorite meat for bear, and oftentimes
carries the marks of severe encounters.
The coon and the opossum of the
Dismal Swamp are universal favorites
for the table. An opossum alter fatten-ing
on milk is a perfect roll of butter
and in point of flavor and delicacy can-not
be surpassed. Both of the animals
are rich in fighting qualities. A high
spirited coon will lie on its back and
whip almost any thing that comes along ;
but in the branches of a persimmon tree
the opossum is king. He is subject to
no man. His throne is the branch
from which he hangs by the tail, and
from it he swings and reigns.
For coon and opossum hunting the
hunter is provided with plenty of
colored boys and hunting dogs, and he
enters the swamp immediately after
dark. It will not be long before a coon
or an opossum will be treed. Then
comes the fun. The "bird" is in the
tree, the dogs are at its foot. The
Southern moon silvers the green
branches. Muscular negroes attack the
tree with gleaming steel or mount into
its limbs. Torches of lightwood blaze
brightly. The hunters gather about.
The tree falls, or the "bird" is shaken
from its limbs. In either case there is a
conglomerate mass of negro, dog and
game. Be the game coon or 'possum,
the captor of the beast in the mad rush
is the envy of all his companions.
The light of the full moon, the flare of
the pine knots shining upon the black
countenances form pictures never to be
forgotten.
Before the war fox hunting was a
popular sport for the planters who lived
about the Dismal Swamp. In the ante-bellum
days "anyone who was anyone"
kept a pack of hounds.
The Dismal Swamp is the scene of
the revelries of the squirrel and the
rabbit. It is the winter home of the
blackbird and the robin. A blackbird
pie stuffed with Lynnhaven oysters is a
dish for the gods. Every section of
tidewater Virginia and Eastern North
Carolina affords good bird and squirrel
shooting, but there is no section supe-rior
to the Dismal Swamp.
LETTERS FROM NORTHERN AND WESTERN FARMERS,
GIVING THEIR EXPERIENCE IN THE SOUTH—XV.
[The letters published in this issue form the fifteenth instalment in the series.
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 for the most part 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.]
A Dakota Farmer's Opinion of Texas.
W. A. Ward, Beaumont, Texas.—
I
came to this place from South Dakota
about three years ago ; have spent three
summers and two winters here in the
coast country of Southeast Texas.
I left the drouth-stricken and blizzard-swept
Northwest to try to find a place
where the rainfall was ample and not
accompanied by wind and hail to destroy
crops and where the heat of summer was
modified by gulf breezes. I was satis-fied
before coming South that the coast
country offered these advantages. I
visited several points in the coast region.
I found here in Jefferson county, Texas,
a comparatively high, well- drained
prairie dotted with groves and plenty
of good water, a good soil on deep
clay sub- soil and a splendid home
demand for all farm products created
by the immense lumber business adjoin-ing
this fertile prairie.
While prices of land had been
"boomed" in some other localities,
here the cattle men had up to that
time occupied the land, but were wil-ling
to "turn it loose" at low prices
—
$2.00 to $3.00 per acre.
Since that time the acreage in rice
has increased from a few acres planted
as an experiment to 5000 acres in Jeffer-son
county alone this year, and the
industry is extending into Liberty and
Chambers counties to our west.
Texas has State school funds at the
rate of $7.35 per annum for each child
of school age, and this fund is increasing
by the sale of public school lands from
year to year. State funds are usu-ally
sufficient for six to nine months
school in country and towns. Some
districts with only eight scholars have a
school by adding to the State fund by
subscription. Local taxation for school
purposes is seldom necessary here.
I bought land two years ago at $2.75
per acre, now worth $5.00. I have
grown two fair crops of rice on the flat
land and set the sandy ridges to fruit
trees, cultivating other crops between
the rows.
This year, in my orchard, I matured
good crops of Irish potatoes and corn
in early summer, and now have a fine
crop of sweet potatoes ready to dig
from the same land. Oats make a fair
yield here and hay is very profitable.
Rice yields from about $22.00 per acre
on an average for land not irrigated to
about $40.00 per acre for the average
of lands watered by pumping. It is
seeded, harvested and thrashed like
other small grains.
The Oriental varieties of peaches,
pears and plums do well here, and I
am convinced that the satsuma orange
can be successfully grown. The com-mon
sweet orange is grown in a small
way by most everybody, but is believed
to be too hazardous for a money crop.
Peach trees set in my orchards in
March, 1893 (then one year old buds),
fruited in 1894, some of the trees ma-turing
as many as forty peaches of the
finest quality. The same trees are now
LETTERS FROM NORTHERN AND WESTERN FARMERS. 523
good bearing size and promise a yield
of from one to two bushels each next
season—June and July. I will plant
several thousand peach, pear, plum and
satsuma orange trees this winter.
Beaumont, the county seat of Jeffer-son
county, and the lumber metropolis
of Southeast Texas, is in the north-east
corner of the county on the
Neches river, a deep navigable stream
which furnishes water connection with
Sabine Pass in the southeast corner of
the county.
Lumber and posts for improving
farms are cheap, a bill of good long-leaf
pine suitable for a house, including floor-ing,
drop siding, ceiling and finishing
can be bought here for $10.00 per thous-and.
I paid $5.00 lor four hundred
good white oak posts with only two
miles to haul to my farm.
The impression that formerly existed
in the minds of Northern people that
this was a low wet land still contending
with the sea for supremacy was very
erroneous. It is apparently as old a
country, geologically speaking, as Illi-nois,
Wisconsin, or other parts ofthe up-per
Mississippi valley. Mosquitoes and
snakes are no more plentiful on these
prairies than on the Dakota plains in a
wet season. I put up 100 tons of
hay this season and saw but one
small snake in my meadows. As to
health, I never saw and am not looking-for
a more healthy climate. My family
was afflicted with catarrh, which disap-peared
almost as soon as we came, and
we have all enjoyed the best of health
from the start. We came in the spring
and have remained here all the time.
This locality offers the advantages of
both an old and new country ; old in
manufacturing, with a good home mar-ket,
good shipping facilities, cheap
material, &c.,but new in agriculture and
with good cheap lands.
The negro population is confined to
the towns (mostly employed in the mills)
where they are industrious and orderly
and have separate schools and churches.
The farmers and farm laborers are white
and mostly Northern people who are
coming in rapidly. The acreage in cul-tivation
is being more than doubled
yearly. There is no petty thieving
here. People sleep with their houses
open and property unprotected.
I never felt more safe in the protec-tion
of life and property than I do here.
The laws are wholesome and well
enforced. The homestead and the
rights of women and children are es-pecially
well protected.
We have good roads and iron bridges
graded and built at county expense.
The native people are generous, intelli-gent
and honorable to a marked degree,
and they co-operate freely with Northern
men, who receive the most hearty wel-come
and encouragement in their efforts
to develop the country.
"Most Charitable People He Ever
Lived Among."
J. Higgins, Newberry, S. C.—For
farming there is no better section than
this, not only for cotton, but for corn,
wheat, oats, tobacco, &c. I have been
with these people nearly two years, and
I would not ask for better treatment.
I certainly think they are the most
charitable people I have ever lived
among. I am a Northern man, from
the city of Augusta, Maine, and can
speak with more knowledge of cotton
manufacturing than of farming. Any-one
wishing to engage in any kind of
manufacturing will find it to their ad-vantage
to invest their money in the
South, because labor and material of
all kinds is much cheaper than in the
North. This place for climate and
healthy condition cannot be equaled by
any State in New England, and I
believe the time is not far distant when
the South will control the manufactures
of the country.
"Never Was a Healthier Place."
J. H. Morse, Warrenton, N. C.—
I
have been South nine years and have
met with the greatest kindness from the
Southern people. They are always
ready and willing to do you a favor,
and when you are sick or in trouble
they never hesitate one moment in work
or deed.
There never was a healthier place
than Warrenton, N. C. It is entirely
free from malaria and mosquitoes. The
soil is red and grey clay soil. Every-
5 24 LETTERS FROM NORTHERN AND WESTERN FARMERS.
thing that you have a mind to plant will
grow. If the people would give one-half
the attention to their crops that
the Northern farmer does they would
soon be independent. The land is easily
cultivated. Fruits grow to perfection.
The finest grapes I ever saw were
grown in this place. We have peaches
in abundance and all other kinds of
fruits do finely. Fine tobacco is raised
in this county, and it brings fine prices,
too. I came from Litchfield, Conn., nine
years ago and my family have been in
excellent health during that period.
This town is especially noted for its fine
drinking water, which is a very essential
consideration. One thing that is hardly
ever known in this section is fog, which
makes the climate so much more desira-ble
for people troubled with throat and
lung diseases. The winters are very mild.
Just the Place He Had Been Looking For.
Kimball Plympton, Rogers, Ark.
—
Contemplating a trip South in pursuit
of health and business, I was casting
about for some information that would
enable me to decide where to go. Acci-dentally
I came upon an advertisement
of Rogers, Ark. I read the article over
and was very favorably impressed with
the description of the country. I at
once decided that Rogers was just the
place I had been looking for, and I
have not regretted that I came here.
When I arrived, although a perfect
stranger, I was received like an old
acquaintance and shown every courtesy
possible. The people here certainly
deserve the name of the "warm-hearted
Southerners." They cannot do enough
for you and they take great pleasure in
showing you around over the country
and seem proud of their extensive crops
and fruit orchards, and well they may,
for one might travel the country
over and not find a more fertile country
where the soil is better adapted to fruit
culture and farming. This locality can
not be surpassed as a health resort,
being located in the northwestern corner
of the State in Benton county, at an
elevation of 1500 feet, where malaria
and those epidemics are not known, with
water of crystal purity from the numerous
mineral springs. This is a city of about
2000 population, all white. The city
has all the advantages that an enterpris-ing
people can make ; there are water
works which abundantly supply the
city with pure spring water, public
schools, churches and several manufac-tories.
Anyone desiring a mild climate
in winter and cool breezes in summer
will find all their wants supplied in this
locality. Besides the raising of all kinds
of fruits and berries, vegetables and
grains, there are many other business
pursuits and openings for an energetic
business man to enter into with profit.
A Dane who has Prospered in Alabama.
O. L. Anthon, Carthage, Ala.—
I
notice that you are publishing letters
from people who have moved South for
the purpose of locating and farming. I
am a native of Denmark, Europe. A
good many years ago I moved to Ala-bama,
and located on the high, level,
fertile lands in Hale county, about one
mile from Carthage—a station on the
Alabama Great Southern Railroad,
where I have now lived for twenty-three
years, and never enjoyed better health.
This is the most suitable country I have
found since I have been in the United
States, for farming and fruit raising pur-poses.
I have a good farm, and a com-fortable
home ; good water ; fine health,
and enough to last me my lifetime.
Our crops are fine, and markets conve-nient.
We can raise from a bale to a bale
and a half of cotton per acre on our land,
without the expense of fertilizing, and
from forty to fifty bushels of corn. Stock
do well the entire year, by running on
the ranges. I advise all seeking homes
to settle in this section of Alabama.
Northern People Will Be Received With
Open Arms, and Can Do Well.
E. R. Burr, Nameless, Campbell
county, Va.—It is with much pleasure
that I give my testimony as to my ex-perience
and treatment, from a Northern
man's standpoint, in settling in the
South, if only in return for all the kind-ness
and attention I have received from
my neighbors. I came down here last
spring broken down in health and
bought a broken down farm about six
miles from Lynchburg, which had not
been worked since the war. I was very
unwell and could not do much work at
LETTERS FROM NORTHERN AND WESTERN FARMERS. 525
first, but notwithstanding that, I made a
fairly good crop and sold off a large
quantity of bark and wood, and made
more than I would have done at home.
There is a ready and good market for
all you can raise and prices are good.
The people are glad to see you and aid
you in every way in their power. There
are good schools and Sunday-schools
and churches, and I have never received
more attention or been better entertained
than I have been by some of the old
rebels 1 fought against in the late war.
My health is good and I feel like a
new man, and would not sell my place
at 25 per cent, advance, and I can say
that if Northern people come down
here and attend to their business they
will be received with open arms and
can do well.
Makes More Than a Good Living Every
Year.
G. B. R. Smith, Howe, Grayson
county, Texas.—I came to Texas
about seven years ago ; have lived here
continuously since then, engaged all the
time in farming ; have experienced about
all the kinds of seasons that ever come
this way, and have never failed to make
more than a good living any year.
From my experience I conclude that
any industrious, economical farmer with
fair muscle and brain can do well in this
country, and in a few years will own a
good, well-stocked and improved farm
that will not require any fertilizers to
make a crop.
We sometimes have to haul a little
water for a month or two, about once in
five years, perhaps, but then we have the
pleasure of hauling lots of stuff from our
farms to market. A careful study of the
situation leads me to the conclusion that
the renter in this country is ahead of the
average land owner in the old States.
Rents are cheaper here than fertilizers
there, the land much easier cultivated
(even though it does stick to the
ploughs) and the yields much better as
a rule.
Of course we have our growlers, and
there are many here who are 'not doing
well, and never will, but I repeat—the
man who can and will work judiciously
is sure to win in this country.
Climate Unsurpassed.
Ebenezer Conklin, Cronly, Colum-bus
county, N. C.—The climate here is
unsurpassed, and the soil under proper
cultivation will make excellent- corn,
potatoes, rice, oats, wheat and all small
grains. Fruit growing is a specialty.
Tobacco does well here. Manufacturing
opportunities are good. I have been a
resident of this State twenty-nine years
and I have never been treated better by
any people than I have by those of the
South, notwithstanding I fought against
them in the war between the States. I
am a native of Williamstown, Mass.
"Don't Know What Hard Times Are."
B. R. Garland, Crowley, La.—
I
came from Rockville, Ind., to Crowley,
La., about three years ago, and have
been growing rice successfully and
profitably. The people of this section
do not know what hard times are.
Because there comes a year occasionally
when they do not realize three or four
times the cost of their lands they call,
it hard times, but they know absolutely
nothing of such want and suffering as are:
experienced in some sections.
In the first place, lands are cheap and
sold on easy terms at a low rate of
interest, and if a man has not a home
of his own it is his own fault. Cheap
lands, cheap fuel, cheap building ma-terial,
cheap clothing and cheap food
—
all this in a land that will produce
sugar, rice, cotton, corn, oats, sweet and
Irish potatoes, fruits of all kinds and
every manner and variety of vegetables.
I know of many men who came here
two and three years ago with from $200
to $500, and today have a quarter
section of land with good buildings
well stocked, their year's feed and seed
and free from debt. How many
countries can do this for a man ? I
defy anyone to point out any section of
the United States today that has done
more for the industrious poor man or
more for the health of the invalid or
more for the capitalist in the way of steady
rise in values and large returns in invest-ments
than this section of Louisiana
during the past five years.
The people of this State have always
performed their labor by the hardest
526 LETTERS FROM NORTHERN AND WESTERN FARMERS.
and most expensive means, and now
that new and improved machinery is
being introduced it is cheapening the
cost of production, and it is safe to say
that rice is raised at a cost of $1.00 per
barrel less than it was five years ago,
with many possibilities of still further
reductions.
Much Easier to Make a Living Than
in the North.
C. A. Barnes, Delhi, La.—I came to
Delhi, La., in the fall of 1892, and after
looking around a little was so well
pleased with the country and people
that I wrote my family to come at once
and they are equally as well pleased as
I am. I settled on an old plantation of
460 acres, about one mile from town.
The farm was without drainage or
fences, and covered to a more or less
extent with Bermuda grass. The land
readily responded to improved drainage,
and after considerable hard work I
finally got rid of the Bermuda grass,
which bothered me considerably at first.
There is no trouble about a man doing
well here if he will work. The soil is a
reddish clay on the hills and will raise
corn, oats, rye, sweet and Irish potatoes,
vegetables of all kinds and different
kinds of fruit. Land is easily cleared
here. You can buy unimproved land at
from $2.00 to $10.00 per acre ; improved
at $10.00 to $20.00, according to locality
and improvement.
Our climate is delightful. Outdoor
work can be carried on the year round.
The forest trees are usually loaded with
nuts and acorns, on which the pigs can
fatten in the fall.
Stock of all kinds do well, and can
graze the year round.
Flowers are abundant and can be
grown the year round in the gardens.
Fish and game are plentiful.
People suffering from catarrhal and
pulmonary troubles are usually much
benefited in this climate.
In the summer the days are warm,
but the nights are generally cool and
pleasant. Several crops may be pro-duced
on the same ground the same
year. We raise two crops of Irish
potatoes every year.
This town is situated on the Macon
ridge, in Northeastern Louisiana, and is
on the line of the Vicksburg, Shreveport
and Pacific Railroad, a division of the
Queen and Crescent system of roads.
We are nineteen miles from the Missis-sippi
river, and our nearest market cen-tres
are Vicksburg, Mississippi, Monroe,
and New Orleans, Louisiana.
It is much easier to make a living
here than in the North on farms, and I
would much rather live here. The peo-welcome
Northerners, and are very kind
and hospitable.
In Southern Texas.
G. W. Magill, Beeville, Bee county,
Texas.—Having lived for a number of
years in Kansas and Missouri, I came
to Bee county, Texas, about three years
ago. The change in the climate and
conditions of the two sections of
country is a very radical one. Our
summers here are very long and hot,
but we have the constant cooling
and refreshing sea breeze right oft
the Gulf of Mexico, some fifty miles
from Beeville. Our winter climate is
simply delightful : so mild and so pleas-ant.
Roses bloom in the open yards all
winter in great profusion, if given proper
care and attention. Snow is unknown,
and ice very rare. Our finest vegetables
are winter grown. In fact, we have a
land of almost perpetual summer and
sunshine. Our only drawback is dry
weather. While we do not have dis-tressing
droughts like they have on the
Western plains, being too far east and
too near the coast for that, we have long
dry spells sometimes that cut corn crops
and grasses short. To insure fruits and
vegetables to be a grand success in this
country, one has only to secure a well
and wind mill and irrigate, at a very
nominal expense. Then failure is im-possible.
The great field crop of this country
is cotton. The fleecy staple is the lead-ing
and sure crop here, the same as
corn in Iowa.
If a Northern farmer will come here
and work and manage and save like
Illinois farmers he will soon get rich.
After having lived in several States, I
am fully convinced that the best new
and undeveloped country left is the
LETTERS FROM NORTHERN AND WESTERN FARMERS. 527
coast country of Southern Texas, say
from Houston to the Nueces river, the
Western portion being the dryest.
While it is a semi-tropical climate, it
is all swept by the gulf breezes and is a
healthy and pleasant climate. Little is
known of it as yet. Until the last few
years it was all big pastures, and is yet
to a great extent. It is mostly an
open prairie country, more brush than
in the Western portions, with very fine
rich, black, heavy soil, some black
waxy, but mostly sandy, and some light
sandy soil. Small grains and apples
do not do so well, but almost everything
else does. Grapes and pears are lead-ing
fruit crops and get into market con-siderably
ahead of California.
Crops are forward with us here in
Bee county this year. We had plenty
of ripe watermelons and roasting ears
out of the fields in May, and we had
ripe grapes the first of June.
This is a good country for anyone
looking for a mild climate, a good new
country, cheap lands for farming, or large
tracts to colonize. Interested parties
should come and investigate this region
and judge for themselves.
"The Country for Beginners."
J. W. Davis, Llano, Texas.—After
an experience and residence here for
forty-two years, formerly from Kentucky,
I find the lands here as rich and pro-ductive
as those of Kentucky. In
forty-two years we have had four or
five drouthy years, which is not more
than an average of the old States.
While our climate is not so favorable
for corn, which on an average is about
thirty bushels an acre, there are no better
wheat, cotton, sugar and rice lands in
the world. Our society will compare
favorably with any State in the Union.
Christianity is represented by all de-nominations.
We have excellent schools.
Good lands range from $2 to $10 per
acre ; the most of our country is well
watered. This is the country for begin-ners.
An Iowa Farmer in Louisiana.
S. L. Cary, President Iowa Colony,
Jennings, La.—The products of South-west
Louisiana are more varied than
further North, and also more valuable
mainly on account of its semi-tropical
climate. Sugar-cane and rice which
grow to perfection here are more valu-able
than wheat, oats and corn crops
North, and Northern crops grown here
mature so much earlier in the season as
to bring much higher prices.
Truck farming is very remunerative,
as we can grow hardy vegetables all the
year and tender varieties months earlier
and later than North of us. The great-est
amelioration of climate is only felt
on the Gulf Coast line for less than one
hundred miles inland.
Sugar cane often gives a profit of
$40 to $50 per acre ; rice, $25 to $50 ;
with an average profit for sugar of $30,
and rice of $10 to $25. Stock growing
with improved breeds is paying well.
Southern climate and Southern-grown
feed stuffs put the Southern feeder and
breeder at the head.
Fruit growing is in its infancy. There
are many obstacles to overcome, but
not as many as where Jack Frost cuts
both ends of the crops. We must find
the fruits best adapted to our conditions.
Nearly all varieties have been tried and
enough have been found to stand the
trial to make this a good fruit country,
best in flavor, in size, color and keeping.
It is an excellent corn country. Oats
do fairly well. Sweet and Irish pota-toes
of superior quality are easily
grown. Grass is king here as else-where.
This is emphatically a grass
country. Textile fibre plants too nu-merous
to mention grow in easy luxu-riance.
Half A Century In Texas.
J. H. Arnspiger, Van Alstyne,
Grayson county, Texas.—I have lived
in Grayson county, Texas, for fortv-nine
years. We have never failed to
raise anything we want to eat or sell,
—
corn, cotton, wheat, oats, barley, rye,
in fact, everything that we have tried to
raise. Fruit does well ; watermelons
do exceedingly well. I have seen
them grow to sixty and seventy-five
pounds each. Sugar cane does well
;
tobacco, vegetables, berries of all kinds
also do well; in fact, we have the gar-den
spot of the world for farming of all
5 2S LETTERS FROM NORTHERN AND WESTERN FARMERS.
kinds. Land is cheap. Land that
brings ioo bushels of oats per acre can
be bought at for $30 to $35 per acre. I
have raised 100 bushels of corn per
acre and over one bale of cotton per
acre. We have good schools, good
churches of all kinds. There is a ready
sale for every kind of produce raised,
and always a good market for stock.
Now is the time for home-seekers to
come to Texas, as the country is settling
up very rapidly. Improving farms is
now all the go, and land is gradually
increasing in value, never to diminish.
You can buy land here, and not have to
advance but a very small amount, and
then pay as you would your rent, in
other words, you can pay four or five
dollars a year per acre until it is paid
out. Texas has plenty of good water
of all kinds, lime, sulphur, freestone,
and all others as good as you can find.
It is, I believe, as healthy a country as
you will find anywhere. The people
are friendly and sociable and society is
as good as the very best. Everything-is
cheap that you have to buy, with
plenty of good wood to burn.
ITEMS ABOUT FARMS AND FARMERS.
A Prosperous Florida Farmer.
Mr. M. H. Johnson of Leon county,
Florida, has on his plantation a steam
creamery in successful operation, He
is using the milk from fifty- four Jersey
cows, and his plant has a capacity for
ten times that number of milkers. The
milk from every cow is tested by a Bab-cock
tester. As at present managed
the revenue from the creamery is $4680
a year, but as the milk that produces
thirty cents worth of butter will yield
38 cents worth of full cream cheese, Mr.
Johnson will reduce his butter output
and manufacture cheese. This will in-crease
the income from this industry to
nearly $6000 a year, more than one-third
of which will be clear profit. He
is now making over 300 pounds of but-ter
a week, most of which is shipped to
different points in the state, and nets
thirty cents a pouud.
Mr. Johnson raises his own stock
iood, such as corn, oats, hay, peas, tur-nips,
sweet potatoes, etc., and is pre-paring
to grow clover. He will make
seventy-five barrels of syrup from six
acres of cane, and his mill is now turn-ing
out seven barrels per day.
This season he has harvested twenty-five
bushels of oats and ten bushels of
peas per acre from the same land, and
then pastured his cows on it for
several weeks, with an increased yield
of milk. He cuts three tons of hay to
the acre. He has orange and lemon
trees in full bearing.
Mr. Johnson buys no stock feed ; on
the contrary he has an abundance to
sell. This is his last year for cotton
growing. He will have no tenants in
the future. He will hereafter hire labor
and devote all his farming operations to
raising food crops.
The South's Corn Crop.
The following comparative statement
of the production of corn in the Southern
States in 1893 and 1894 *s compiled
from reports of the Agricultural Depart-ment:
Maryland 15,078,221 14,268,234
Virginia 31,234,046 32.195.S55
North Carolina 29,954,313 32,959,485
South Carolina 12,501,035 18,728,822
Georgia 33.678,277 35.143-737
Florida 4919,364 5,214,04s
Alabama 28,328,514 34,760,317
Mississippi 25,817,179 35,931,206
Louisiana 15.216,266 17,880,183
Texas 61,170,965 69. 338,678
Arkansas 32,110,814 38,437,833
Tennessee 63.6j9.66
1
68,060313
West Virginia 14,089051 j 12,611,972
Kentucky 68,008,060 j 67892,301
Total 435,745,766 I 483,422,984
Yield 1S93.
Bushels.
Yield 1894.
Bushels.
This shows an increase of 48,000,000
bushels, divided according to States as
follows: A gain of 1,000,000 bushels
in Virginia, 3,000,000 in North Carolina,
6,200,000 in South Carolina, 1,500,000
ITEMS ABOUT FARMS AND FARMERS. 529
in Georgia, 6,000,000 in Alabama, 10,-
000,000 in Mississippi, 2,600,000 in
Louisiana, 8,000,000 in Texas, 6,000,000
in Arkansas and 4,400,000 in Tennessee,
with a decrease in West Virginia and a
slight decrease in Maryland and Ken-tucky.
Why Cotton Doesn't Bother Him.
With one mule Mr. V. A. Hoffman,
near Holly Springs, Miss., made the
following crops this year : Three
hundred and thirty bushels of- sweet
potatoes, sixty-five bushels of Irish
potatoes, spring crop, and forty bushels
fall crop, three bales of cotton, one
hundred bushels of cotton seed, two
thousand bundles of fodder, twenty
bushels of peas, five bushels of peanuts,
three tons of hay, four hundred and
forty-five bushels of corn. Four-cent
cotton doesn't bother Mr. Hoffman.
Mr. T. M. Adams, of Oak Hill,
Florida, speaking of his success with
bees, said to a correspondent of the
Jacksonville Citizen that when he first
went to Florida, about fifteen years ago,
he purchased in Jacksonville on his way
South a barrel of Florida syrup. On
arriving at his destination some of the
natives came to visit him, and finding
that he had plenty of syrup, suggested
a trade for some honey. Mr. Adams
accepted the proposition, and liked the
honey so well that he determined to
have some bees of his own. After some
trouble he became possessed of a small
number. Since that time he has never
been without them, but has never con-sidered
it a business, simply spending
two hours once a week looking them
over, except in the season of extracting
honey.
This year he started with a spring
count of seventy colonies, and began
extracting on May 1, continuing until
July 20, in which time he took from
sixty colonies 23,850 pounds of honey
and 150 pounds of wax, and increased
his stock from seventy to 120 colonies.
At the low prevailing price he sold the
honey for something over $1200 and the
wax for $36. During the extracting
season Mr. Adams, assisted by his wife,
spent two hours each day at the work.
Mr. James M. Thornton, of Aus-tin,
Texas, said recently to a Dallas
News reporter : "I have traveled all
over Texas and have experienced an
agreeable surprise at the discovery that
our farmers are taking to raising hogs,
so that two years from now Texas will
have all the bacon and pork necessary
for home consumption and a surplus for
shipment. The swine display at the
Texas State fair this year was the finest
I have ever seen in any State, and yet
it is only a sample of what the farmers
of Texas are doing."
Mr. James A. Westbrook, of Mt.
Olive, N. C, is one of the most success-ful
truck farmers in North Carolina.
He has made a fortune in the last few
years raising strawberries. Last season
he had thirty acres in strawberries, for
which he received, after deducting
freight and commissions, over $14,000.
The cost of cultivating, picking, hand-ling,
&c, was something over $3000,
leaving nearly $11,000 clear profit on
the thirty acres, an average of about
$350 an acre. He experimented with a
tract of an acre and a-quarter to see if
the most careful and elaborate and ex-pensive
cultivation that could reasona-bly
be given it would produce results
sufficiently great to justify the extra care
and cost. From this acre and a-quarter
he sold strawberries to the value of
more than $1000, after deducting freight
and commissions. The total cost of
cultivating and handling was about $200,
leaving a net clear gain of $800, or at
the rate of $600 an acre.
Mr. V. V. Montgomery, of Ed-wards,
owner of the celebrated acre of
land that netted $400 profits on its suc-cessive
crops in 1893, was m town
Wednesday. The acre was not quite
so profitable this year, owing to its third
crop—one of cabbages—being unusually
late, but has paid him the greater
moiety of that sum. Persons who doubt
whether farming pays will be convinced
after seeing Mr. Montgomery's acre,
that he makes it pay him. He has
ninety-six fat hogs to sell this season
and plenty of corn and other forage.
He reports that the Hinns county corn
53° ITEMS ABOUT FARMS AND FARMERS.
crop, an excellent one—as is the case
indeed all over the State—is bringing
half a dollar cash a bushel, much to the
delight of the farmers, who figure out
a handsome profit for themselves at this
price, although it is about fifteen cents
under the rate at which Western corn
can be sold.—The Commercial Herald,
Vicksburg, Miss.
Mr. E. A. Murray of Chattanooga,
Tenn., has leased from the North
Highlands Land and Improvement
Company ioo acres of land just above
Columbus, Ga., and also seventy-five
acres of the Bussey farm, which is
adjoining. A greater portion of this he
will plant in sweet potatoes, the rest be-ing
devoted to raising food products and
other vegetables. Mr. Murray is an
expert sweet potato grower, and last
spring experimented on a tract of land
near Fort Valley, Ga. His success
there has doubtless induced him to
work on a larger scale at Columbus.
A number of farmers in Hale county,
Alabama, have organized the "Farmers
and Merchants' Co-operative Associa-tion,"
the object of which is to encour-age
and promote the raising at home,
as far as possible, of all needed supplies.
E. W. Pabor, of Pabor Lake, De
Soto county, Florida, said recently: "I
think that pineapples will be the coming
crop of this State. I set out 70,000 the
past summer and expect to set out more
soon. I have about 200,000 out now.
I think they will net $350 per acre easily
enough. They should net to the grower
on an average 4^ cents each. I shall
push this industry, as I have great con-fidence
in it.
"Then, too, I am working on bananas.
I think that the dwarf variety can be
made to pay. I am experimenting on
several patches, so as to see the effects
of different kinds of lands and cultiva-tion.
I have about 700 or 800 plants
now."
Mr. W. L. Elzev, a prosperous
farmer of Northampton county, Va.,
had sixty acres of his farm in cultiva-tion
this year, the yield from which was
2700 barrels of sweet potatoes, 250 bar-rels
of Irish potatoes, eighty barrels of
corn, twenty tons of scarlet clover hay,
eight tons of red clover hay and a
variety of other products. Of the 2700
barrels of sweet potatoes he has shipped
1300 barrels, with net returns from same
of $1610, the balance of the crop being
stored for the winter markets.
THE SOUTHERN STATES.
THE
Southern States.
Published by fne
Manufacturers' Record Publishing Co.
Manufacturers' Record Building,
BALTIMORE, MD.
SUBSCRIPTION, = = = $1.50 a Year.
WILLIAM H. EDMONDS,
Editcr and Manasrer.
BALTIMORE, DECEMBER, 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.
Observance of Law in the South.
A study of the statistics of crime and
pauperism in the United States will reveal
some striking facts. The South has been
so clamorously and so persistently
maligned as a lawless section that it has
come to be almost universally assumed to
be true that the laws are more frequently
violated in that section than in other parts
of the country. Even the Southern people
themselves, in a large part, having heard
so much, and such continuous outcry
against Southern lawlessness, and so much
vaunting of alleged relative freedom from
crime of other parts of the country, have
grown to accept it as a fact that the South
is less regardful of law and peace and
order than the rest of the country.
The Southern States asserted recently
that there is less disorder, less violation
of law, less crime in the South than in the
rest of the country in proportion to popu-lation.
An analysis of prison reports of
the eleventh census will amply support
this statement. The statisticians of the
census classify the States of the union in
five divisions: the North Atlantic, compris-ing
Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont,
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut,
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania ; the
North Central, comprising Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota,
Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Da-kota,
Nebraska, Kansas; the Western,
comprising Montana, Wyoming, Colorado,
New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada,
Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California;
the South Atlantic, comprising Delaware,
Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia,
West Virginia, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Georgia, Florida; the South
Central, comprising Kentucky, Tennessee,
Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas,
Oklahoma, Arkansas.
The South Atlantic and South Central
divisions include all the fourteen South-ern
States, with the addition of Delaware,
District of Columbia and Oklahoma. The
aggregate population of these three is so
small, (being less than 500,000), that it does
not materially affect the results of this
inquiry favorably or otherwise, and the
classification of the Census Department
will therefore not be disturbed.
The charge of lawlessness in the South
is made with reference to the white popu-
532 EDITORIAL.
lation. People who talk about the South
as a law-breaking section have in mind
only the dominant race in the South, the
whites. The statistics of crime here given
will therefore relate only to the white
population of both the North and South.
Taking first the white convicts in peni-tentiaries
and calculating their numerical
proportion to the white population, elimi-nating
the negroes, Indians and Chinese,
we find that the ratio is: in the North
Atlantic division, as one to 1294 of popu-lation;
in the North Central division, one
to 2366; in the Western, one to 800; in the
South Atlantic, one to 4644; in the
South Central one to 2285. Or, to make
the comparison in another shape, to every
100,000 of population the number of con-victs
is: in the North Atlantic division 77;
in the North Central division 42; in the
Western division 125; in the South Atlan-tic
division 21; and in the South Central
division 43. Taking the two divisions that
comprise all the Southern States, and the
three that make up all the rest of the coun-try,
it is found that the proportion is: in
the South one convict to every 2927 of
population or 34 in every 100,000; and the
rest of the country one to every 1607 or 62
in every 100,000. Thus it will be seen that
the South as a whole has in proportion to
population but little more than half
as many convicts as the North; that
the better of the two sections in
the South, the South Atlantic division,
has only half as many as the best
section in the North, the North Central
division; that in the section having in the
South the greater number of convicts, the
South Central division, the number is ap-proximately
the same as in the Northern
section that has the fewest; that in the
Southern section having the larger ratio,
the number is but a little more than one-third
of the Northern section that has the
the largest ratio, the Western division;
that taking the whole South together, the
number is more than one-third less
than in the Northern division that has the
smallest number.
Considering the prisoners in county
jails the comparison will be as follows :
In the North Atlantic States the propor-tion
is thirty-six to every 100,000 of popu-lation;
in the North Central States 17;
in the Western States 52; in the South
Atlantic States 13; in the South Central
States 23. Comparing the whole South
with the three other divisions jointly the
figures would be iS to every 100,000 in the
South and 27 in the rest of the country,
—
that is, the South Atlantic division has
fewer by one-fourth than the best Northern
division; the South Central has one-third
more than the best Northern division, but
one-third less than the North Atlantic
and 50 per cent, less than the Western
division, and the South as a whole has
fewer by one-third than the rest of the
country.
The statistics of pauperism are equally
noteworthy. The paupers in almshouses
as shown by the census are as follows: in
the North Atlantic States, 178 in every
100,000; in the North Central States, 114;
in the Western, 103; in the South Atlantic,
91; in South Central, 46. Comparing the
South with the rest of the country, the
figures would be, in the South 66
paupers to every 100,000 of population; in
the rest of the country 139 to every 100,000.
These figures include both white and
colored races. They show that the South
has less than half as many paupers in
proportion to population as the rest of the
country; that the ratio in the South, as a
whole, is 40 per cent, less than that of the
Western division, about 45 per cent, less
than that of the North Central division,
and about 65 per cent, less than that of the
North Atlantic.
Tabulating the foregoing facts we have
the following, the figures given showing
the number in every 100,000 of population:
EDITORIAL. 533
White
Convicts
in
Peniten-tiaries.
White
Prisoners
in
County
Jails.
Paupers
in
Alms-houses.
North Atlantic Divis'n.
North Central Divis'n.
South Atlantic Divis'n.
South Central Divis'n.
77
42
125
21
43
36
17
52
13
23
17S
114
103
91
46
The South 34
62
18
27
66
The remainder of the
139
These comparisons are made in no spirit
of unfriendliness towards any part of our
country. The purpose is simply a refu-tation
of the constantly repeated charge
that the South is less law-abiding than
other sections. These figures, from a
source authoritative and unquestioned,
demonstrate beyond cavil that the South
is by far the most peaceable and virtuous
section of the Union, as it is the most
pronouncedly American.
Important and Promising.
The immigration meeting held in New
Orleans November 26 may have vast influ-ence
for the good of Louisiana if plans
outlined at the meeting shall be consum-mated.
It was nominally a meeting of the
State Board of Immigration, to which
some other prominent workers in the
cause of immigration had been invited.
The meeting was a small one in point of
numbers, but it contained almost every
one with whom the material advancement
of Louisiana in the great broad lines of
capital and immigration is most closely and
minutely identified. Many of them made
addresses, and contributed their ideas
and experience to the meeting as a guide
for its lines of operation; hence it came
that the meeting was an intensely practical
one. It merely formulated what the con-duct
and plans of these veteran operators
had long ago proved a signal success.
That is why it may be said to be promising.
If these men could make the desert blos-som
as the rose, it is a very simple thing
to show how more flowers may be added
to the garden they have constructed. The
remarkable consensus of these men as to
how immigration is brought about, and
how it is to be broadened, was very nota-ble.
Men not only have to know how to
work, but they have to labor, and to wait,
and to spend money. Immigration does
not come like rain from heaven, and with-out
human intervention. It has got to be
worked for. And these practical workers
gathered at New Orleans agreed that the
first and most important work to be done
by any community or section is to make a
judicious and continuous distribution of
advertising matter. Louisiana has drawn
to itself in the last few years many thous-ands
of well-to-do agriculturists from the
West and Northwest, and it is because the
State, through its railroads and some of
its more enterprising citizens, has been
widely and wisely advertised.
The Augusta Chronicle and The
Worcester Spy.
The Augusta Chronicle, commenting
on a recent editorial in the Worcester
(Mass.) Spy, says
:
"For several months the Southern
States magazine has been publishing
letters from Northern men living in the
South, giving their experience here, and
in many cases urging their friends at the
North to come South. A member of The
Spy's staff recently visited Baltimore, and
while there was instructed by the paper to
call on the editors of the Southern States
Magazine and see some of these letters to
ascertain if they were genuine, or only
fake communications. Being asked if he
received manv such communications, the
editor showed packages of letters, care-fully
filed, to the number of more than a
thousand."
The Chronicle has queer notions about
some things. Possibly if a stranger
should walk into its office and coolly ask its
editor if letters it had been publishing
were "genuine or only fake communica-tions"
the question would be considered
a natural and proper one, but we don't
know of any other newspaper office in
534 EDITORIAL.
which an insult of this sort would be toler-ated.
Nobody ever asked if any of the
letters published by the Southern States
are genuine, and no paper has ever in-structed
any member of its staff to "see
some of these letters and ascertain if they
were genuine." The member of the Spy's
staff referred to is a gentleman. Such an
errand as the Chronicle imputes to him
would be impossible with him. His state-ment
of the matter in the Spy is misquoted
by the Chronicle. As published in the
editorial columns of the Spy it was as fol-lows:
Recently a member of the Spy's staff
spent a day in Baltimore and while there
called upon the editor of the Southern
States. This monthly magazine is
engaged in the work of collecting and
disseminating information about the soil,
climate, agricultural capabilities and gen-eral
resources and attractions of the South
for the benefit of inquirers in other sections
of the Union For a number of months it
has given several pages to communications
from Northern settlers in all the States
from Virginia to Texas inclusive, all of
which were written by men who professed
to be more than pleased with their new
homes and surroundings. Asked if he
received many such communications, the
editor showed packages of letters carefully
riled, containing in all more than a thou-sand."
Furthermore there could be no possible
room for doubt as to the authenticity of
any of these letters, for the reason that the
names and addresses of the writers are
given in full and they may be written to for
verification of their published statements.
The South the Center of the AngIo=Saxon
It is a matter of the utmost significance
and importance that the South is and has
been these many years the seat and center
of the Anglo-saxon race. It is a positive
promise of the future that she will continue
to be. Not only the increase in this popu-lation,
through nativity, will sustain and
perpetuate this ascendancy, but the char-acter
of immigration to the South at pres-ent
is, and in its future will be, broadly
stamped with the numerical predominance
of the English race. And, as the years
roll on, this current will gain breadth and
volume and velocity. It will bring ever-increasing
assurance to the South of sta-bility,
capacity for self-government, and
perpetuity of civil liberty.
The immigration to the South the last
few years is most decidedly Anglo-Saxon
and Anglo-American. To go no further
the close observer must have noticed what
seems almost ^.penchant of English agricul-turists
to settle in a certain section in
Virginia, and the over-shadowing ascen-dancy
of the Anglo-American farmer from
the West in the immigration to the South-west
in the last decade, an immigration
almost as pronounced in this race-feature,
in its peaceful and beneficent descent, as
was the invasion of hostility and ravage
of the same race in England in the earlier
part of the Christian era.
The theme is a broad one, and may well
be emphasized hereafter in its many-sided-ness.
Just now we wish to impress the
South with the fact that it is destined on
this continent to be the permanent seat of
the Anglo-Saxon race, and its transcendent
civilization with its innumerable blessings.
The Way to Advertise.
No State offering natural advantages to
settlers can do too much judicious adver-tising,
but it is doubtful if the practice now
in vogue of printing and distributing a
mass of heavy official statistics from State
bureaus is conducive to a great amount of
benefit in the way of inducing immigra-tion,
and for the simple reason that only a
small portion of such matter reaches the
hands of those whom it would influence.
—
Times-Union, Jacksonville, Fla.
Unquestionably the most effective and
economical method by which to reach the
notice of intending settlers and possible
buyers of Southern property is the use of
advertising space in the Southern
States. Real-estate agents, immigration
and colonization companies, land-owners
and railroads advertising in it get the ben-efit
of its entire circulation. It goes di-rectly
to people who are looking for such
EDITORIAL. 535
information as will enable them to decide
where to settle in the South, or who have
present or prospective business or invest-ment
interests in the South. Advertisers
who use it almost invariably find the re-turns
far greater than had been expected.
On the front cover page of this issue
of the Southern States is published a
letter recently received from Messrs. W.
W. Duson & Bro., Crowley, La. The fol-lowing
is taken from another letter
written a week later: "We have a big lot
of land seekers on hand and they are still
coming in; and we are still receiving an
immense number of letters, most of them
referring to your valuable magazine."
Mr. W. A. Butterworth, Asbury Park,
N. J., writes: "The more I read the
Southern States the better I like it and
the better I think of the Southern States
as a place to live in."
The Southern States has probably
more readers to the copy than any other
periodical. Sometimes a single copy will
go the rounds of an entire village.
Recently Mr. D. Welty, Allegheny, Pa.,
having heard of the Southern States
wrote for a sample copy. After he had
received and examined it, he sent a money
order to pay for a years' subscription and
for several back numbers, adding at the
close of his order: "The copy of the
Southern States you sent me has been
read by more than fifty persons."
Immigration Notes.
Immigration Society for Louisiana.
The State of Louisiana has determined
to make a systematic effort to secure set-tlers
through an organization expressly
for that purpose. Among those interested
are Gov. Murphy J. Foster, Secretary
Harry Allen, of the Young Men's Busi-ness
League of New Orleans; F. B. Bowes
and J. F. Merry, of the Illinois Central
Railroad; J. M. Lee, Jr., of the Queen and
Crescent route; F. M. Welsh, of Alex-andria;
A. S. Graham, A P. A. of the Tex-as
& Pacific Railway; Prof. W. C. Stubbs,
S. L. Cary, J. G. Hawkes, M. B. Hillyard,
F. A. Daniels, Wm. Garig, Uriah Millsaps,
C. E. Cate, Robt. Bleakley, W. W. Duson,
Lucien Soniat and S. Levy, Jr.
The officers of the society are: Presi-dent,
Harry Allen; vice-presidents, first
district, John Dymond; second district,
Lucien Soniat; third district, S. L. Carey;
fourth district, S. Levy, Jr.; fifth district,
Uriah Millsaps; sixth district, Wm. Garig;
secretary and treasurer, George Moorman;
executive committee, Hy. Allen, ex-officio
chairman; J. M. Lee, Jr., W. W. Duson,
F. A. Daniels, Robert Bleakley, F. B.
Bowes, C. E. Cate, W. C. Stubbs This
committee includes several well-known
promoters of colonies, among them W. W.
Duson, who has been remarkably success-ful
in establishing towns in West Louisiana.
He was actively interested in Crowley and
Eunice, whose rapid development has
already been referred to in recent issues of
the Southern States.- The executive
committee is to formulate plans for imme-diate
work, and hold meetings whenever
the exigencies may require. It will have
full power to make publications, raise
funds, employ agents, and do whatever
may be necessary to induce immigration.
It will solicit subscriptions from railroads
and other corporations, from city councils,
from parish police juries, boards of trade,
chambers of commerce, business leagues
and private individuals.
The new organization will doubtless
accomplish much good in stimulating im-migration
to the State in addition to the
movement already under way.
A Texas Immigration Meeting.
An important factor in the development
of Texas will be the conference held in
St. Louis on November 12. It was called
for the purpose of combining the interests
working for immigration, and was held in
St. Louis in order to secure a representa-tion
from trunk line railroads entering
Texas, as well as immigration agents from
the Northwest. The conference was at-tended
by the passenger traffic managers
of the Southwestern railway and steam-ship
lines and by representatives of the
business interests of Fort Worth, Dallas,
Houston, Waco, Wichita Falls, Abilene,
Cleburne, Taylor, Comanche, Brownwood,
Corsicana and Pecos Valley.
A committee was selected to outline a
plan for the inauguration of this work,
composed of Hon. B. B. Paddock, mayor
of Fort Worth, who originated the meet-ing
and issued the call for it; John Sebas-tian,
general passenger and ticket agent
of the Rock Island railway system; John
Byrne, of the Santa Fe; J. A. Kemp, of
Wichita Falls; T. F. McEnnis, of Dallas;
W. B. Slosson, of Houston; S. M. Smith,
of Fort Worth; A. A. Heard, of the Mis-souri
Pacific railway system, and Mr. A. E.
Johnston.
This committee has prepared a plan
which involves the spending of $250,000
in advertising the State; $ 100,000 the
first and second years, and $50,000
the third year. It is suggested that
railroads doing business in the State
contribute one-half of this sum, and that
business concerns, cities, counties and the
State make up the remainder. Represen-tatives
of many of the railroads and promi-nent
men throughout the State have
expressed approval of the plan. A. E.
Johnston, who forms one of the committee,
is at the head of an immigration bureau in
536
IMMIGRATION NOTES. 537
New York, which has sent to the North-west
many thousand immigrants from
Europe.
Governor Northen at Work.
Hon. W. J. Northen, whose work in con-nection
with immigration has been previ-ously
referred to in the Southern States,
has decided to live in Atlanta in future to
give more attention to the work he has
planned. He is preparing to send a repre-sentative
through the West to tell the
farmers out there what they can do in
Georgia. He is also preparing to open an
office in New York.
Governor Northen has received a call
from a Pennsylvania physician who repre-sents
a colony of fifteen farmers, all of
them desiring to come to Georgia. The
doctor will practice his profession, while
the families will give their attention to
fruit raising.
Mechanics Seeking the Country.
Mr. F. W. Green, general agent of the
Mobile & Ohio Railroad at St. Louis, says :
"On a recent trip South our road carried
166 heads of families to the prairies of
Mississippi and the fruit-growing region of
Alabama. These men were largely farm-ers
from the Northwest, who have grown
disheartened over continual crop failures,
their inability to pay off mortgages, and
also to avoid the rigor of Northern win-ters.
"But among those farmers was for the
first time a sprinkling of mechanics, who
propose to leave the crowded cities for the
farm, upon which many of them were
born. It is only a beginning, but the dis-appointed
of the cities will seek the peace
of the country more rapidly than is ex-pected.
"The political and social conditions of
the South are more inviting today than
ever before to the Northern small farmer.
Immigration is flowing there. This road's
average of 300 families a month is rapidly
increasing."
Scandinavians Looking to the South.
Prof. G. Jerstner, of Chamberlain, S. D.,
has been spending some time in Tennessee
in the interest of a number of his country-men
who want to move South.
In conversation with a reporter he said
when his people left their native countries,
Denmark, Sweden and Norway, they
located very largely in Minnesota and the
Dakotas, where they formed about
one-third of the population. They had
worked hard and had taken no time to
look about, and a great many of them had
accumulated a competence. They now
felt like finding a warmer country and
were looking to the South. He had come
to see for himself, and would put the
result of his observations before the
people he represented, publishing them in
119 newspapers published in the Scandi-navian
language. These people wanted a
hilly or mountainous country, and were
tired of the flat and bleak prairies, so un-like
their own homes. They were a home-loving
people, and wanted a country that
resembled their own.
The first December land-seekers' excur-sion
train of the Southern Railway Co.
carried South 175 persons who went as far
as Atlanta, and from there scattered over
Georgia and adjacent States.
E. H. Allen and F. Offenberg, Ohio
farmers, are prospecting in the vicinity of
Americus, Ga., with the view of buying
fruit farms.
Mr. Wm Bonthron, representing a
Scotch colony, has located near Evergreen,
Alabama, and will be followed by his
friends in the next few months. They will
engage in truck farming and fruit growing.
An indication of the movement south-ward
was noted at Nashville, Tenn., one
day in November, when five farmers and
their families from North Dakota reached
the suburbs of that city. They started
from their homes in wagons and drove
500 miles, but it became so cold that they
were obliged to make the rest of the trip
by rail. They are pleased with the soil
and climate of Tennessee, and especially
with Southern people. Their present in-tention
is to settle in Middle Tennessee,
probably near Nashville. The names
of the men in the party are: T. Streeter,
E. T. Van Dusen, E. A. Palmer, F. M.
Foster, E. M. Berry.
The Macon (Ga.) Advertising and Immi-gration
Bureau has decided to hold a con-vention
in that city probably in January, at
which every county in Georgia shall be
533 IMMIGRATION NOTES.
represented, to discuss the best system for
securing settlers.
A report from El Campo, Texas, states
that five cars filled with settlers from the
North have come to that vicinity to locate
within a few weeks.
Hon. J. Stoddard Johnston, superin-tendent
of the recently organized Ken-tucky
Immigration Bureau, has formulated
a plan to create branches of the bureau in
each of the counties of the State, and to
have each contribute a sum proportionate
to the amount of taxable property in the
county to a fund to be used for advertising
and other purposes.
Mr. Macbeth Young, McBees's Land-ing,
Arkansas, writes : "This Northwest
Arkansas and Southern Missouri is being
settled up fully by immigrants from the
North, mostly from Nebraska and the
Dakotas. Emigrant wagons passing every
day. Thousands are settling in Arkansas."
Peter Kleiver and Martin Leith, with
their wives and eight children, started
from Howard county, Neb., in Septem-ber
in wagons to drive to White City,
Fla. At the end of nine weeks they
reached Memphis, Tenn., and went from
there to Jacksonville by railroad. At
Jacksonville they resumed their wagons
for the rest of the trip.
Messrs. Kennedy & Ballard, real
estate and financial agents, Chicago, have
been investigating the "fruit belt" of South
Georgia, and are negotiating for the .pur-chase
of lands on the Georgia Southern &
Florida road, below Macon, for a coloniza-tion
enterprise. Statements that have been
published as to their purchase of 20,000
acres of land elsewhere are not correct.
S. W. Rose, of Indianapolis, Ind., has
undertaken to organize a "co-operative
colony," to occupy lands adjacent to the
town of Handsboro on the Gulf coast of
Mississippi.
Major W. L. Glessner, Commissioner
of Immigration of the Georgia Southern
& Florida railroad, took an excursion
party of farmers and capitalists from the
West down to South Georgia in November.
A number of the visitors bought farms,
and all of them were greatly pleased with
the country. Major Glessner is now in the
West making up another excursion.
Ten families of Scandinavians have
bought land together near Bartow, Fla.
An immigrant party of seven families in
wagons reached Florence, Ala., the latter
part of November, having driven all the
way from Muncie, Ind. They had with
them good farm stock and farming
implements. Another party of eight fami-lies
from Dakota passed through Florence
in wagons on their way to Walker county,
Ala., where they had bought land. They
stated that many others would follow.
Several Northern families have recently
bought homes in the neighborhood of
Enterprise, Miss.
Mr. E. E. Posey, general passenger
agent of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad,
writes as follows: "The immigration move-ment
is increasing. We have 200 land-seekers
on our November excursion, and
are greatly pleased with the large percent-age
of those who purchase homes. If the
signs indicate anything in this direction,
it is that we shall have a very large number
of Northern settlers during this coming
season."
A statement from Chicago, referring to
the southward movement of discouraged
settlers who are leaving the Northwest,
says: "Passenger travel to the South is
reported by the roads engaged in it to be
unusually heavy at present. The regular
winter tourist business has begun a month
earlier than usual this year and is moving
in large volume. A very considerable
proportion of it is coming from North
Dakota, Minnesota and Northern Wisco-sin.
Settlers in these States, disheartened
by the failure of their crops and the dis-astrous
fires which swept away all their
possessions last fall, are now going South
with the intention of becoming permanent
residents there."
As an indication of the extent of the
emigration from the Northwest, a member
of a St. Louis wagon supply manufacturing
company states that his company alone
has recently shipped parts for 60,000
wagons to that section, the wagons having
IMMIGRATION NOTES. 539
been ordered for farmers who want to
move away. It is much cheaper, even
counting the great length of time con-sumed,
to transport their families and
stock and household goods in wagons
than by railroad. In parts of Tennessee,
Arkansas, Texas and elsewhere in the
Southwest one may meet almost any day
one or more of these emigrant wagons
that have come from Kansas, Nebraska,
Iowa or the Dakotas, and have been from
six to twelve weeks on the way.
A report from Raleigh, N. C, is to the
effect that a colony of Michigan people
from near Kalamazoo, consisting of sixty
families, will soon arrive and locate on a
tract of land near the city. They are said
to be professional growers of celery, to
which they have applied themselves for
many years, and will devote themselves to
the same business there. Their purpose
is to raise celery the year round in this
climate and ship it to the large markets.
They propose to put in 300 acres of celery
at once.
Persons at Americus, Ga., have re-ceived
letters from English people inquir-ing
about the climate, resources, etc., of
Southwest Georgia. It is stated that the
correspondents are desirous of obtaining
about 3000 acres of land on which to locate
a settlement of 200 English families.
Real Estate Notes.
Baltimore Real Estate Debenture Bonds.
The Maryland Title Insurance & Trust
Co. has initiated a plan for making mort-gage
loans and issuing debenture bonds,
secured by the mortgages, that will be of
great benefit to all real estate interests in
Baltimore and its vicinity.
The company will make real estate
mortgage loans for periods of five and
ten years, repayable, both principal and
interest, in monthly instalments, and
further secured by policies of insurance on
the lives of the borrowers. The monthly
payments to be made by the mortgagors
will be so adjusted that at the maturity
of each mortgage the borrower will have
returned to the company the amount of
his loan with interest, and his monthly
payments will likewise have maintained
an insurance on his life for the company's
benefit equal at all times to the amount of
the loan still unpaid. In this manner, in
the event of the borrower's death before
the last monthly instalment of principal
and interest has been paid, the mortgage
is to be released and the unpaid balance
of the mortgage debt is to be cancelled.
The company also contemplates making
mortgage loans repayable at the pleasure
of the borrower within a fixed time.
With these mortgages as security, the
company will issue gold debenture bonds.
The debentures are to be coupon gold
bonds in series of not less than $50,000,
and each series is to be independent of
every other series. The Maryland Trust
Co. is constituted trustee, and the trust
agreement stipulates that first mortgages
on Maryland real estate, the titles of which
have been examined and insured by the
Title Insurance Company, shall be trans-ferred
by it to the trustee as security for
the debentures. The mortgages held in
trust for each series of bonds must always
be at least 5 per cent, in excess of the
debentures issued against them. The
trustee is given power to release the mort-gages
to the different mortgagors as they
are paid.
A sinking fund is established in the
hands of the trustee, to which annual pay-ments
are to be made by the Title Insur-ance
Company in all cases where the
security for the debentures is instalment
mortgages, so that the trustee may at the
maturity of each series of bonds have funds
in hand to liquidate them. The agreement
requires the Title Company to transfer to
the trustee, as part of the mortgage secur-ity,
all policies of insurance on the lives of
borrowers as well as all the mortgage
notes or other evidences of debt.
The Title Company's mortgage loans will
be made on a forty per cent, margin of
security in real estate, and in addition to
this security the debenture holders will
have the security of the company's own
capital.
The first issue of bonds under this
arrangement was made December 6
The amount was 150,000. The subscription
list was opened at ten o'clock in the morn-ing,
and when the books were closed in
the afternoon the subscriptions aggregated
$138,000.
Moving Into Eastern North Carolina.
Mr. J.J. Wolfenden, a real estate dealer
of New Berne, N. C, has sold to Tomb.
Johnson & Co., of Allegheny, Pa., a num-ber
of tracts of land aggregating 50,000
acres in Craven county, N. C. It is stated
that this land will be colonized by farmers,
mechanics and others from the vicinity of
Pittsburg and elsewhere. Saw mills and
other woodworking shops will be started
to utilize the timber on the property and
furnish material for building houses for
the colonists. It is expected that there
will be a wide diversity of agricultural
pursuits, some engaging in general farm-ing,
others in stock-raising, truck farming.
REAL ESTATE NOTES. 54i
dairying, poultry breeding, fruit growing,
etc. The farms will comprise from twenty-five
to 200 acres each.
Buying Lands in Virginia.
Ohio people have recently shown their
faith in Virginia by buying lands in that
State. S. L. McKelvy and Abner L.
Davis, of Findlay, O., were two of a party
who visited Louisa, Dinwiddie, Goochland
and Henrico counties. They purchased
550 acres near Richmond, 800 acres near
Petersburg and 1000 near Norfolk.
Florida has over a million and a quarter
acres of land open to homestead entry.
A recent transaction at St. Louis shows
the growing tendency to invest in real
estate near large cities. A syndicate paid
l4oo,ooo for a tract of about 175 acres sev-eral
miles from the centre of the city,
reached only by steam railroad, the sched-ule
time by train from the station on the
property to the Union station in the city
being twenty-five minutes. The pur-chasers
will develop the property as a
residence suburb, spending $100,000 or
more in improvements before putting it
on the market.
D. L. Cramer, of Ewing, Neb.; T. S.
West, of Benkieman; W. Saunders, j. H.
and John Hair, of Unadilla, Neb , have
decided to settle at Stuttgart, Ark., with
their families and have bought property
there.
Dallas (Texas) real estate dealers say
that the demand for dwellings in that city
this season is greater than it has been for
five years.
Hanson City is the name of a new
town which has been established about
twelve miles from New Orleans and prac-tically
in its suburbs. The Hanson City
Co. is the corporation which developed
the property, and on the first day that lots
were adveriised for sale about $30,000
worth were disposed of. The land in its
vicinity is specially adapted to growing
garden vegetables, and it is expected that
this will be occupied by many truck
farmers. The Folsom Arms Co., of New
Orleans, has purchased a site 100 by 150
feet for a cartridge factory which it intends
building. A furniture factory is also pro-jected.
Hanson City is to have electric
lights, telephone and telegraph service,
also a cold-storage plant and an ice factory.
No house can be erected to cost less than
$1000. Mr. Horace W. Sessions is general
manager of the company.
The Highlands stock farm, near Lexing-ton,
Ky., has been sold to Col. Asher, of
that State. The price was $75,000.
A business block in Baltimore, near the
centre of the city, has been sold for
$52,500 to Mr. Edwin F. Abell, who has
built or purchased some of the largest
mercantile and manufacturing structures
in the city.
The Gazette, of Fort Worth, Texas, has
been investigating general business condi-tions,
and sums up the real-estate situa-tion
as follows: "Real estate is holding
up well, and there is and has been for
some time past a large amount of trans-fers
of property, indicating, not a boom,
but a lively business. The real-estate
men, as a rule, report business as good.
Houses are in demand, and there are very
few vacant buildings, either business
houses or dwellings, in Fort Worth at this
time. Building is constantly going on,
and the observer has only to look about
him and note the large number of hand-some
public buildings, business blocks
and dwellings scattered all over the city
to feel assured that Fort Worth is at least
holding her own, if not outstripping every/
other city in the State of Texas."
The Security Storage & Trust Co., re-cently
formed in Baltimore has bought
property on North avenue near Charles
street, on which it will erect a brick and
stone building to cost between $125,000
and $150,000. The building will contain
five rooms on the ground floor to be used
for banking purposes, stores, &c. The
other floors will be used for storing per-sonal
property. The company will do a
general banking business, and make a spec-ialty
of securing valuable articles, papers,
etc. Henry S. King, a prominent mer-chant,
and John S. Gittings, of the banking
house of that name, are interested.
A piece of property in Atlanta 52 by 172
feet recently sold for $52,000 at auction.
It was bought bv a mercantile firm.
General Notes.
Diversified Crops in the South.
The New York Tribune publishes the
following article by Richard H. Edmonds,
editor of the Manufacturers' Record :
In a discussion, in the Tribune of last
Friday, of the low prices now prevailing
for wheat and cotton, a very dismal picture
of the condition of Southern planters was
drawn. After stating that the prospect for
cotton planters appears to be rather darker
and more dismal than that of the wheat
growers, it said :
"Moreover, the cotton planter can't eat
any of his cotton and can't feed it to ani-mals
; while the Western wheat grower
can consume a part of the wheat which he
produces and feed a part, at least, of it to
hogs and other animals."
The writer of the Tribune article is labor-ing
under a misapprehension that seems
to prevad very generally throughout the
North. Apparently, he is of the opinion
that the Southern farmer raises little but
cotton, and as the price for that is low his
financial condition is very distressing. I
do not hesitate to say that the low price of
cotton is a blessing to the South, although
the cotton grower who is selling cotton at
from five to six cents a pound may not see
it just in that light; but there is no such
condition of financial distress as the Tri-bune
article would indicate. For some
years the South has been learning to return
to the condition of agriculture prevailing
before the war and raise its own foodstuffs,
with cotton as a surplus crop, as it did then
to a large extent. Last year the South
raised a large corn crop. The low price of
cotton and the general financial stringency
forced Southern farmers to produce their
cotton on a very economical basis. Less
money was borrowed on advanced mort-gages
than in any vear since the war up
to that time. With almost enough corn
and bacon to carry them through last
spring, with comparatively little money
borrowed in advance on cotton, the South-ern
farmer produced his 1894 crops at a
lower cost and with less debt than in any
year since i860. His cotton crop, in fact,
was nearer to a surplus money crop than
any since that date.
The world has heard so much about
Southern cotton that probably few people
realize the fact that the corn crop of the
South of 1S94 is worth more money than
the cotton crop and that the total value of
the South's cotton crop now annually
averages less than one-third of the aggre-gate
value of all Southern farm products.
The fact is, the increased production of
grain and other crops for 1894 fully coun-terbalances
the decrease in cotton due to
low prices. The Western farmer, when
his wheat or his corn has failed him, or
when prices are low, has but little to fall
back upon ; but the Southern farmer has a
diversity unequalled elsewhere. I know
that this is contrary to the general under-standing
of Southern agricultural condi-tions,
but any careful investigation will
prove its correctness.
In 1S93 the fourteen Southern States
produced 435,745,000 bushels of corn. The
advance reports of the Agricultural
Department show that the yield for 1894
was 483,422,000 bushels, although the
actual facts of the case are that the output
of Southern corn was larger this year than
these statistics show. In other words the
corn crop was so much better than usual
that investigation convinces me that the
Agricultural Department did not fully
cover the increase. But even accepting
these figures, here is a gain in the South
of 48,000,000 bushels of corn, and as the
average price in that section is over fifty-cents
a bushel, here is an increase added
to last year's corn crop of #24,000,000,
without considering the increase in value
of corn over the increase in value last year.
The central cotton belt region shows an
increase in production of corn of 3,000,000
bushels in North Carolina, 6,200,000
GENERAL NOTES. 543
bushels in South Carolina, or a gain in
that State of fifty per cent ; 1,500,000 bush-els
in Georgia, 6,000,000 bushels in Ala-bama
and 10,000,000 bushels in Mississippi.
Contrast this increase in grain production
with the great decrease in the West, and
the strength of the South's agricultural
position is seen. In Iowa, the great corn-producing
State, and. the State in which
corn is so essential to prosperity, the aver-age
yield for 1894 as given by the Novem-ber
report of the Agricultural Department,
was fifteen bushels per acre. In Kansas
the average was 11. 2 bushels ; in Nebraska,
six bushels ; in South Dakota, 4.2 bushels,
while the average for the entire South from
Maryland to Texas was 16.9 bushels per
acre.
In order to confirm the statement made
that Southern agricultural prosperity does
not depend upon cotton to the extent that
is generally supposed, and that the value
of the cotton crop is only about one-third
or less of the value of Southern agricul-tural
products, a few statistics bearing on
these points may be of interest.
The general output of farm products in
the South in 1894 was greater than in 1893,
all crops in that section, with rare excep-tions,
having been very abundant ; but it
is impossible as yet to get all the returns
of this year's crops, and so the statistics
for the crops of 1893 will answer. In that
year the South produced 53,000,000 bushels
of wheat, valued at $34,700,000; 85,800,000
bushels of oats, valued at $34,900,000 ; and
added to the value of rye and barley, of
which small amounts were produced, and
the value of the corn crop, based on this
year's yield, would give a total of over
$320,000,000 as the value of the South's
grain crops, which exceeds the value of the
cotton crop. Of the total production in
the entire country of tobacco in 1893 of
483,000,000 pounds worth $39,000,000, 376,-
799,000 pounds, valued at $28,356,000, were
produced in the Southern States. Of pota-toes,
the yield in the South was 19,385,000
bushels, valued at $12,237,000. The South
is not generally credited with being a hay-producing
country, and yet in 1893 its yield
of hay was 5,418,000 tons, worth $61,767,000 ;
but in this connection it should be stated
that it is generally customary in the South
for cattle to graze during much of the
year, and consequently the hay is not cut
and the value ascertained as closely as in
the North. In reality, therefore, the value
of the grass crop of the South was far
beyond the $61,000,000 reported.
Throughout the South there is a steady
increase in diversified agriculture, an in-crease
which is making the Southern
farmer less and less dependent upon cot-ton,
and is not only enriching the farmer,
but is steadily furnishing a better founda-tion
for all the business interests of the
South that are dependent upon agricul-ture.
The increase of rice cultivation is
revolutionizing much of the State of Lou-isiana
and bringing to the rice farmers of
that State greater profits than are made
by any other cereal growers of the country.
Fruit growing and truck raising are mak-ing
gigantic strides, and from South Geor-gia
alone over 10,000 carloads of water-melons
are annually shipped to the North
and West. Within the last four or five
years over 1,000,000 peach trees have been
set out in South Georgia, while in parts of
that State, in Carolina and elsewhere,
grape growing is making great progress.
The bulletin of the United States Census,
giving the yield of fruit in the census year
1890, shows that of a total production of 36,-
367,000 bushels of peaches in the entire
country, 27,793,000 bushels were produced
in the South, 26,900,000 being south of
Maryland. In that year the State of Geor-gia
led with a production of 5,525,000
bushels of peaches, while Arkansas had
3,000,000 bushels and North Carolina
2,700,000 bushels. The total crop of apples
for the country in 1890 was 143,100,000
bushels, and nearly one-third, or 46,947,000
bushels, were produced south of Mason
and Dixon's line.
Turning to the smaller things, it is found
that in 1S80 the South had 27,400,000 barn-yard
fowls, and in 1S90 89,585,000. The
production of eggs rose from 100,474,000
dozen in 1880 to 184,344,000 dozen in 1890.
In dairy products the increase was even
more remarkable. In 1880 the South made
120,600,000 pounds of butter, and in 1890
211,000,000 pounds. The returns of milk
production for the entire country in 1S80
were evidently deficient—every State re-porting
but a comparatively small amount
of milk. The South reported for that
year 13,900,000 gallons ; in 1890 there was
a tremendous gain reported throughout
544 GENERAL NO TES.
the entire country, the reports of this year
having been more complete than in 1880,
but the actual gain in the South was some-thing
remarkable, and the figures reported
were 838,718,000 gallons.
A study of these figures will show that
the South is diversifying its farm interests.
Cotton at five and six cents does not mean
bankruptcy to Southern farmers; it simply
means that cotton-raisers will have a little
less money to spend than they would have
had at higher prices. These low prices,
however, will emphasize, just as the low
prices of two years ago did , the necessity of
Southern farmers giving more and more
attention to raising diversified products
and living at home instead of buying corn
and bacon in the West as they had done
for so many years. High prices for cotton
would have caused a return to the all-cotton
system, and in a year or two the
Southern farmer would again have been
giving his time almost wholly to cotton
instead of to diversified agriculture.
What the raising of home supplies means
to Southern farmers, to the South at large
and to Southern railroads in the matter of
transportation, may be illustrated in the
case of one small town in Georgia, which
is but a sample of hundreds of others. Up
to three years ago this little town of about
1000 inhabitants had annually handled an
average of $100,000 of Western bacon and
corn, sold by the merchants to local cot-ton-
raisers. Two years ago there was a
most noticeable decrease in the amount of
Western produce brought in. Last year
less than eight carloads were sold, and
this year it is more than likely that that
town will ship grain and bacon to other
points. This changed condition has been
going on all the way from Carolina to
Texas. To that is due much of the de-crease
seen during the last two years in
the volume of Southern railroad freights,
but while this decrease temporarily less-ened
the earnings of Southern railroads,
it means an enormous improvement in the
financial condition of the people, which
must from this time on steadily react in
favor of the railroads. The condition of
the Western farmer, as depicted in the
Tribune, may be correct, and that section
may have before it, as the writer of the
article indicated, great depression, but
the South is on solid ground. Its
future is brighter than ever before.
Texas Farmers.
Mr. Gaston Meslier, general passenger
agent of the Texas Pacific Railway, with
headquarters at Dallas, Texas, says :
"No State in the Union has produced
finer crops this year than Texas. More
cotton has been raised than can possibly
be picked, and despite the abnormally
low price of the staple, the planters have
made lots of money. This ruinous system
of crop mortgages obtains less in that
State than anywheie else, and a farmer,
however shiftless he may be, must de-pend
solely on his own exertions to obtain
money—for it can be had in no other way,
save by the sale of his produce. No, the
banks will not lend money to the planters.
They refuse to do so for several reasons,
the principal one of which is the exemp-tion
law of Texas. This leaves free from
attachment any homestead which cost
originally $5000, no matter what its pres-ent
value may be; all his agricultural instru-ments,
several hundred dollars in cash,
and a portion of his crop. This enact-ment,
extreme as it is, has done much
for the Texas planter, because it has ren-dered
it impossible for him to get in debt
for any embarrassing sum."
When asked as to his idea of the proper
means of inducing settlers to go to the big
commonwealth, Mr. Meslier answered :
"The best thing to be done just now is
to spread the news far and wide that
Texas is not only a great cotton State, but
that it can produce almost anything grown
in other sections of the land in far greater
proportion to the acre than elsewhere.
Let the farmer of the North and West
learn that there is an unfailing crop down
there every year of a variety of products,
and he will come, because Texas has
everything else in its favor. We raise
twenty-five bushels of wheat, fifty bushels
of corn, and 100 bushels of oats to the acre.
These are facts that everybody should
know."
The Southern Farmer.
Mr. G. Wilfred Pearce, of Brunswick,
N. J., writes as follows in the New York
Sun:
"* * * One great trouble with South-ern
farmers who have not traveled far
from home is that they fancy their condi-tion
far worse than it is, and believe that
the farmers of the West and East are
GENERAL NOTES. 545
better off in every respect. There could
not be a greater mistake, for any traveler
who has kept his eyes open when visiting
the different sections of the country will
have noticed the prosperous appearance of
Southern farmers' homes and lands as
compared with the squalid condition of the
hard-working farmers of the far West or
in parts of Maine, New Hampshire and
Vermont. Few well-informed men would
not prefer an investment in a cotton plan-tation,
even at the present low price of
that staple, to an ownership in a potato
farm in Maine or a hay farm in New Hamp-shire.
Despite the hard times in the
South the farmers keep their sons and
daughters at home, where there is plenty
to eat for all; but in the long-settled New
England States most of the farmers' sons
and daughters who stay at home during
seed time and harvest must seek work in
the stifling factories, and live in the vile
hovels of the manufacturing towns, in
order to earn enough to keep themselves
from the alms-houses. Farming in the
densely settled State of Massachusetts
brings smaller returns upon the money in-vested
than in the comparatively sparsely
settled State of Arkansas.
"* * * Let it not be forgotten that
the industrious and intelligent farmers of
the South have by dint