Chapter L: S. PACKARD, Pine Bluff, Moore county, N. C., formerly of (1)

Warrensburg, N. Y.--Few persons realize from passing through the South what the soil is capable of producing under careful cultivation. After a stay of several years among Southern people I have learned much about them and their modes of work, the care the lands ought to have and the yields that can be expected under good cultivation. I give in brief my observations:

Southern men and women are justly entitled to the credit they get for being the most hospitable people in the United States. The majority of them live easy, enjoy life and are contented to go forward in the quiet ways of their fathers. Some, however, are branching out, learning to make money and are accumulating fortunes on the farms and in the factories. It is the general belief of the Northern people that Southern people cannot succeed.

To show an instance where a Southern born man has succeeded I shall confine my article to one man and to one farm, and in my future letters give the names of Northern men who have come South. Within a mile of the Seaboard Air Line in the county of Clark and State of Georgia, Mr. John Smith has a farm of several hundred acres. He started with small means but has improved, buying more land and stock, building larger barns and better houses each year until he has one of the finest and best equipped and regulated farms in the United States. His grain, clover and grass fields are as fine as any in Pennsylvania or New York. His stock is well kept and creditable in number and quality; they will compare favorably with the best in Ohio, Michigan or any part of the Northwest. His cotton fields are beautiful beyond description. He has every convenience in the way of modern machinery. He has built and equipped a railroad from his farm to Athens, Ga., and has erected a cottonseed oil mill, fertilizer factory and conducts a general mercantile business to supply tenants and employees.

Mr. Smith’s farming operations were enough to convince me that all the soil needed was careful cultivation and constant attention to yield three times the profit of any in the Northern or New England States.

Recently I met Mr. J. T. Patrick, of Southern Pines, N. C., who is a noted worker for Southern development and perhaps one of the best posted men in the South in regard to the developments going on in that section. I spoke to him about Mr. Smith. Mr. Patrick said: “I have seen his farm and it is a credit to Mr. Smith and the South, but there are many more Southerners who are doing as well as he, but I suppose you have not seen their farms. Major R. S. Tucker, of Wake county, Dr. W. R. Capehart, of Bertie county, and thousands of others scattered over the South are owners and managers of as fine farms as you can find in any part of the United States. You Northern people do not get out from the line of railroad to see what our people are doing, and we are generally judged, condemned and sentenced by people who ride through our country at the rate of forty miles an hour on a Pullman palace car and don’t know the difference between a cotton plant and a stalk of buckwheat.”

There is a great deal of truth in what Mr. Patrick said. Northern men who come South to learn ought to come down prepared to stay long enough to go into the country and see the farms and not judge the South from a poorly conducted farm, but from those managed with intelligence.

Political Opinions Not Counted.

JAMES M. DICKEY, Superintendent National Cemetery, Corinth, Miss.--In 1881 I was a resident of Lamed-Pawnee county, Kansas. From March 1, 1882, to March, 1884, was stationed at Barrancas, Fla., near Pensacola. From April, 1884, to the present time have been a resident of Corinth, Miss.

My observations during this time have been somewhat limited, but in the material progress the agricultural classes have made considerable advance. The old-time theory that cotton was the only crop to be raised with profit has been discarded. Corn, potatoes, tomatoes, strawberries, grapes, fruits, etc., and nearly all classes of products that the truck gardener can raise will find remunerative sale. Climate and healthfulness are exceptionally good. I have not been under the care of a physician during the period of nine years.

Churches are Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian and Christian. Schools of Corinth are public, graded into primary, intermediate, grammar and high school. Seven months, with two months additional of pay school, to such patrons as may elect to send.

The one great and all important question that has been asked of me by visitors to this place is: “How do the people treat you? Are you ostracized from society?” etc. My answer has been, and I have no reason to change it, that a person’s habits and deportment are his or her passport or entree to society. It makes no difference in North Mississippi whether a person came from Georgia or Michigan; the social reception is the same.

The political liberality of the citizens is as good as anywhere. While having their own honest convictions, they respect the convictions of others. My political views are in a minority, but during all this time no one has questioned or impugned my motives or convictions or hindered the rights of suffrage.

Middle Georgia as Compared with the North and West.

G. N. BARKER, Longstreet, Ga.--As one who has been a resident two years in Middle Georgia after ten years residence in the West and Northwest, occupied in stock raising, etc., I may be able to point out a few advantages and differences relative to these parts. What will strike the farmer most on arriving in this section is the total absence of grass meadows or any visible facilities for the pasturing of stock, but curiously enough, an abundance of fairly nutritious hay may be cut during summer, of sufficient nutritive value with the assistance of a little grain for stock. The corn crop is light per acre to one used to the West; oats, however, yield well when well cultivated, and are off the ground in May, the same ground making also a good hay crop the same year. Bermuda grass makes an inexhaustible supply of pasture for all stock, except three winter months when green rye, barley or oats will take its place. Italian rye grass I have found grows luxuriantly during winter and spring, and it makes more milk than almost any herb. Red top grass also succeeds well. During summer there is an abundance of forage crops for all classes of stock, and of good nutritious quality. Stock is healthy here, provided it is kept clean and not overfed with too highly fattening foodstuffs. My health has vastly improved in this climate and I have recovered from the exposures of the Northwest. The land here is poor and run down, but good cultivation and moderate manuring soon restore a fertility that is astonishing to anyone seeing only what is done without fertilizer. The greatest drawbacks in this section are the total inability of the laborer, merchant and business man to comprehend or encourage anything but cotton. All kinds of fruits flourish with good care bestowed upon them.

Farmers coming from other parts will have to either do or closely superintend the minute details of their business; nothing can be left to the colored labor and they have not yet had any practice with the better methods or implements. Lumber is cheap; also carpenters very; to one accustomed to Western prices, so many comforts may be had unattainable out there. The heat is no drawback, not being anything like the maximum attained in North Dakota and Montana, but the summer is long and debilitating to the newcomer, who must use discretion in taking too much sun the first season. Good foundation stock of all kinds can be bought here at moderate prices. Living is very cheap and work not hard, if cotton is let alone, as there is more time all-the-year-round to work than in colder regions. Roads are moderate and railroads numerous, obviating the distances to be traveled out West to and from one’s station and postoffice. As a place of residence for comfort, absence of great atmospheric changes, cheapness of living and land, and other things necessary to the comfort of a farmer, I consider the South has many and varied advantages over the North and West.

From New Hampshire to North Carolina.

R. M. COUCH, Southern Pines, N. C.--The statement of facts I shall make in this letter will lean to the conservative in all cases, as after a residence of eight years and an extensive correspondence with inquirers after facts, I have learned that the truth is good enough and exaggeration folly. By the advice of my physician I left New Hampshire and located here, and have not been North even on a visit since, and as the climate was the first consideration with me, let me say unqualifiedly that I believe it as near perfect all the year round as can be found in any part of the world. I am confirmed in this conclusion by the testimony of scores who have sought this haven of health after trying such places as Colorado, California, New Mexico, Arizona, and even the South of France and Italy. The healthfulness of this section being established, the next question which confronted me was the means of support, and as we make no claim that this soil (a light sandy loam) is adapted to general farming, we were compelled to look to the fruit industry as the most likely to help us out, and well are we repaid for the venture. It is proved that a dry atmosphere and porous soil produces very fine flavored fruit and that in this climate, also, the fruit “colors” up better and makes a much better appearance than that grown in a colder and less sunny climate. But one strong hold on the fruit industry lies in our geographical position as regards the ripening season, which brings our fruit into market, out of competition with any other section. This fact was proved by our shipments last season.

Within five years there have been planted in this immediate section 1500 acres in fruit, and in order that your readers may have the advantage of direct correspondence with any or all the growers of fruit, I will give the names from memory: C. J. Eaglesfield was the pioneer on a small scale; S. N. Whipple, extensive peach, plum, grape and nut farm; Van Lindly Orchard Co., 350 acres peach, pear, plum and blackberry; Niagara Grape Co., 107 acres in grapes; Southern Pines Fruit-Growing Co., eighty acres in grapes; Benjamin Douglas, Jr., of Orange, N. J.; Tarbell & Carlton, H. P. Bilyeu, Dr. C. W. Weaver, C. D. Tarbell, Thomas Carlton, Fred Oberhouserheur, James H. Murray, S. W. Thomas, Charles H. Thompson, Edwin Newton, Doctors Boynton, Stevens and R. M. Couch, Rev. A. A. Newhall, B. Van Herff, J. T. Wilson, Dr. W. P. Swett, H. P. Stebbins, J. A. Morriss, R. S. Marks, L. S. Johnson, C. C. Mitchell, John Huttonhomer, F. J. Folley, Rev. J. W. Johnston, Mrs. L. A. Raymond, Mrs. Louisa Young, P. Pond, Fred Dixon and others. There were shipped from this point last season 150 tons, being the first bearing year of the oldest vineyards of much size. The bearing vineyards and orchards the coming season will more than double the shipments, and in two years all the vineyard trees mentioned will come to bearing.

The prices in Washington and New York last July were six and seven cents per pound for black grapes, and thirteen and fourteen cents per pound for Delaware and Niagara, and $3.50 to $4.50 per bushel crate for peaches and plums. The demand was as good at the close of the season as at first. Write to Dr. C. W. Weaver, S. N. Whipple, H. P. Bilyeu, C. D. Tarbell, C. B. Mabore for prices obtained for their own shipments. Dr. Weaver realized from three acres of his best Delaware grapes $150 per acre net.

I have thus, in a rambling way, given your readers an idea of the climate and agricultural resources of the sand hills of Moore county, N. C.

Southern Pines is a town eight years old, in the midst of the turpentine region of North Carolina, sixty-eight miles southwest from Raleigh, on the Raleigh & Augusta Railroad (part of the Seaboard Air Line), fifteen hours from New York, and is six hundred feet above sea level, the highest point in the whole turpentine belt. The soil is a sandy loam and has a perfect drainage. Malaria is unknown. The presence of the long-leafed pine in large quantities causes the generation of ozone to such a degree as to make this locality almost a specific for throat and lung difficulties. Many physicians and a large number of the cured and benefited testify to its wonderful effects. The town is filled mainly with Northern people, and has four hotels, a good school, and church services every Sabbath. There are three stores, and railroad, telegraph and express offices. There are many fine residences and a large hotel 300 feet long and four stories is being built with modern improvements.

Fruit-Growing in Texas.

R. T. WHEELER, Hitchcock, Galveston county, Texas.--I have examined and am very much pleased with your magazine, and particularly the department of agricultural correspondence. This is an exceedingly interesting and important feature, well calculated to accomplish much in the settlement and development of the South. Your journal has a high mission and is on the right road.

Unlike most of your correspondents I am a native of this State, and a lifetime resident of this section, and therefore naturally biased in favor of this country, climate and people, free, however, from any prejudice against any other portion of the country. While I am not in the strict sense a farmer, and have no skilled acquaintance with any branch of horticulture or agriculture, I have had ten years’ practical acquaintance with the cultivation of this soil, and my ten years’ residence at this station, fourteen miles from Galveston City, has given me the opportunity of observing its rapid progress and development within the past five or six years, from a purely stock country, a naked prairie, in which lands were worth not exceeding fifty cents per acre, devoted exclusively to raising ordinary Texas cattle, it requiring at a low estimate ten acres to support one cow of the value of about $6, to a prosperous and independent fruit and truck farming community, having over 150,000 pear trees set to orchard, over 100 acres in strawberries now ripening and ready for market, yielding from $300 to $600 per acre; some 300 acres more in cultivation in general vegetables, a church, good public schools, with an average attendance of over fifty scholars daily, good stores, about twenty artesian wells flowing good, pure, wholesome water in the greatest abundance, from a depth of about 600 feet, nurseries and rose gardens with several hundred varieties of roses now in full bloom in the open air, without a poor man or woman, and not one that is not making a good living, a community whose reputation is co-extensive with horticulture within the States and Canada, whose products are well-known in Chicago and other markets, and whose strawberries have sold as far West as Salt Lake City.

Very much of the wonderful development of this country is due Col. H. M. Stringfellow, who some nine years since introduced the Le Conte and Kiefer pears, and whose orchard, in the language of an ex-governor of Texas, is “simply a world-beater.” Last year, as we all know, was both a drouth and a panic year, and yet on his thirteen-acre orchard Mr. Stringfellow cleared considerably over $5000 on pear fruit alone, and much more on the sale of rooted pear cuttings, these pears being propagated by cuttings. I could write a book about this country and then be in the same trouble as the Queen of Sheba, but I fear that this letter is beyond reasonable length. Notwithstanding this extraordinary development, lands are still comparatively cheap; the best can be had from $20 to $50 per acre.

An Opinion of Arkansas After Three Years’ Trial.

J. M. SOWLE, Dryden, Ark.--I came here from Michigan in June, 1890. Located at a place now called Dryden, just west of Gilkerson on the St. Louis Southwestern Railway, with seventeen families and a few single men; seventy in all. The B. & S. W. Railroad now runs through our town.

Two families returned to stay; three more got lonesome here in the woods and went back expecting to stay, and before they were back two months acknowledged that they were homesick to come back and did come back, as they liked the society here, as well as the fine weather and good health. Everyone here now are here to stay, and most of them have bought land.

We have such nice warm sunshine and weather in the winter. Health best of any place we were ever located. Out of the seventy people in the three years and eight months, have had eight persons sick enough to go to bed. One two-year-old girl died; another three-months-old babe died; she was well at midnight, found dead in bed in the morning; and one woman fifty years old died with consumption, think hereditary, as her father, mother and five brothers and sisters died with the same disease. The three who died are counted in the eight sick, except the babe.

The soil here is good and never fails to raise crops on account of drouth or any other cause. We have raised fifty bushels shelled corn to the acre on our poorest land, and a bushel of potatoes to twenty-four hills, and in fact nearly all kind of crops are extra good. The county is naturally suited to peaches, plums and grapes. General good crops are corn, cotton, wheat, oats, timothy, clover, red top, blue grass, blackberries, raspberries, apples, pears and quince.

Society is good; more church members in proportion to population than any place I ever was in. Laws are enforced here better than any place I ever lived.

This county is a peaceful and safe county to live in, as we have the best of accommodating neighbors, as well as law-abiding citizens.

A General Answer to Many Letters of Inquiry.

A. K. FISHER, Abbeville, Ga.--My letter published some time ago in your magazine brought me so many letters of inquiry concerning this section, our mode of farming, cost of getting land ready for cultivation, etc., that it required a long letter to each, and I have been unable to comply. I write this letter now to cover all the ground of inquiries.

Abbeville has about 2000 inhabitants, is county seat of Wilcox county, Ga., is on the Savannah, Americus & Montgomery Railroad, sixty-five miles east of Americus, where the railroad crosses the Ocmulgee river. This river is navigable; Brunswick is near its mouth.

Abbeville has two churches--Methodist and Baptist; Presbyterians also have service there. Schools generally are not as good as in most of Northern States, but are gradually improving; have some teachers from the North.

Heretofore the products from this section have been lumber, spirits turpentine, rosin, cotton, some beef cattle and wool.

A few years ago fortunes were made in a short time in lumber and turpentine business when properly managed, but most of the operators increased their business, bought large tracts of land, borrowed money, etc. Now the prices of those products have declined to or below cost of production, and for the past two years our banks have not been loaning money, so those parties are obliged to sacrifice their lands. Although this section has been settling up rapidly, lands can be bought for less than two years ago.

In past twenty years cotton has declined from twenty to seven cents per pound. When cotton brought from fifteen to twenty cents per pound the cotton planter had all the money he required and raised nothing else for market. As a class they spent their money freely; if more money were required before the crop was made they could readily get advances on cotton crop; now the staple is below cost of production, still many are obliged to grow cotton, as it is the only crop on which they can get advances. To change requires an expenditure for farming implements and machinery for putting in and harvesting the crop, stumps are to be gotten out of the way, etc. To grow fruit requires several years to realize. Most of the planters own large tracts of land, and are anxious to dispose of a part; some are hoping each year the acreage in cotton will be reduced (by many putting their lands in other crops), thereby enhancing the price of cotton and they be benefited. They prefer to grow cotton, having never done anything else. Some who tried hay failed on first trial, as they did not have proper implements, and they exposed it to dews and rain after it was cured or partly so.

The timber in this locality is long leaf pine, excepting along the river, where is abundance of hardwoods, viz: different varieties oak, hickory, ash, gum, cypress and some elm. The pines are not thick on the land; the principal roots go straight down; the surface soil is sandy, intermixed with dark pebbles and clay subsoil. The mode of clearing land is to deaden by girdling the trees, burn the logs and trash on the ground, fence and put in the plough. To one not accustomed to it, this looks very slovenly, but I believe it is the best plan, as in a few years the trees rot and fall to the ground. The trees are no more in the way than the stumps; the dead hearts can much more readily be split into rails or burned than when green. The heart rails will last fifteen years; it costs about $10.00 per thousand to put rails into fences; rails are ten feet long. I am building board fences; lumber costs me at mill $5.00 per thousand feet. There are plenty of mills. I have my posts split from dead hearts and faced with axe; they cost me about three cents each at fence. When the ground is wet a man can dig seventy holes in a day; when dry the clay subsoil becomes very hard and one half above number would be good work.

I have taken stumps from 200 acres land at a cost of about $2.00 per acre; generally would cost from $2.00 to $6.00 per acre, according to length of time land had been cleared. I have not tried dynamite; some have, but cannot state whether it gave satisfactory results; I believe it would, especially in new land. We plant our corn in rows, generally six feet apart and from two to three feet apart in a row, one stalk in a place. At last working of corn we put in one or two rows of peas to every row of corn; the peas and corn mature at same time. When corn is gathered we gather peas enough for seed, then put in the hogs and they fatten from the peas. Some varieties of those peas will remain on the ground all winter and grow the next summer. The pea crop is worth as much as the corn crop.

Corn grown here is worth seventy cents per bushel. From sixty acres I got over 1200 bushels of corn. I used on the sixty acres two tons of phosphate that cost here $16.00 per ton mixed with the manure from four mules and 200 bushels cottonseed worth fifteen cents per bushel. Some make more, some less, according to cultivation and amount of fertilizers used. One of my neighbors for several years past has been making forty bushels of corn to the acre.

From 100 acres in oats I got 2000 bushels; these are rust proof and always in demand for seed; I sold all for sixty cents per bushel. I used no fertilizers under the oats; I generally cut two crops of hay same season from same land after I cut my oats. I plough, harrow and roll the ground in June. I use under the hay guano worth about $6.00 to every acre and get two tons of hay per acre worth here $18.00 per ton. This grass comes spontaneously after the land is cultivated a few years and makes excellent hay. It does not grow North. This year one of my neighbors cut from twelve acres 600 bushels of oats; put no fertilizers under the oats, but had the year previous oats on same land, and after the oats were cut, in June, he planted it in peas; when the peas matured he turned his hogs in; by October the hogs had gathered the peas, then he ploughed under the pea vines and sowed in the oats. This is the most economical way of improving our lands. The crop of peas pays for all the expense. We feed but little corn to our hogs.

Wheat is grown but little in this section. When cotton was worth twenty cents per pound no one would raise wheat, so the mills were either torn or rotted down, but in a short time there will be a mill to grind wheat in the vicinity. There are plenty of mills to grind corn. Nearly all the vegetables grown North do well here, and come into the market much earlier, and many that do not grow there do well here. Cabbage and Irish potatoes do well here, but when planted in spring mature early in summer and do not keep longer than a couple of months; when planted in July they mature in fall and keep tolerably well, but sometimes it is difficult to get a stand of plants in July.

This is about 32° north latitude; peaches, pears, plums, grapes and some varieties of apples do well here, and all begin bearing at much younger age than North; perhaps are not as long-lived, but heretofore no care has been taken of them.

In the woods the grass grows during summer from one to one and one-half feet high, and makes a splendid pasture, especially for six months, commencing in April. The cattle, sheep and hogs are never fed. At this time of the year all are poor, but in May both cattle and sheep are in good order. By having some winter pastures to keep the cattle fat for winter market the beeves would bring fancy prices in the home market. There is plenty of good beef here in summer; in winter our beef comes from the West (cold storage) and costs by the quarter eight cents per pound.

We sow oats from September to February; I pasture mine some in winter, but there are a number of grasses that make here a good winter pasture. Alfalfa is being grown with success in some portions of this State; no doubt would do well here. These cattle, sheep and hogs on the range have never been improved by crossing with improved breeds; the rule has been to leave every tenth male for breeding purposes. By crossing the native ewes with some of the improved breeds, and feeding some on pasturing in winter, lambs could be put into Northern markets much earlier than from the States farther North. These cattle and sheep are all gotten up at a certain time for shearing and marking, when those for market are sold to buyers who ship them to the cities to sell to butchers. Some of the stock is never seen by the owners. The young are marked with the mark of its mother, the fleece of wool tied up and marked, the owner notified, he pays for sheering and gets it. All land not fenced is range and free to all. One might own 1000 head of cattle and not own an acre of land. Hogs live and grow on range but do much better when fed some; those near river get fat from acorns.

Building material is cheap. Kiln-dried and dressed flooring and ceiling from $8.00 to $12.00 per M feet; No. 1 Brick at kiln $5.00 per M.

Butter is worth thirty cents per pound, eggs fifteen cents per dozen, sweet milk ten cents per quart, buttermilk five cents per quart.

A number of parties from Ohio came to this section last February; some bought when they came, others bought this winter; all remained. They say they do not feel the heat any more than in Ohio, as we have more breeze and the nights are pleasant. Sunstrokes are unknown. A few days ago a party from Ohio bought 300 acres of land one and one-half miles from Abbeville, thirty acres of which is cleared, all salable timber cut from the balance, but enough for farm purposes on the land; buildings worth $150; no orchard; 250 acres fair pine lands, fifty acres of but little value, price paid $1600; $1150 cash, $450 in twelve months. The buyer intends going into the dairy business; also fruit and improved stock. Lands can be bought at from $2.00 to $10.00 per acre, according to distance from railway, improvements, etc., and my experience is a better profit can be made farming from an acre here than from an acre in the Northern States, where their lands are valued at from $50.00 to $75.00 per acre. Taxes are about fifty cents on values of $100. Near rivers, ponds, etc., are subject to some fevers. I have lived here for past twelve years; have not had case of fever among my family or hands on the place.

We have no sand flies nor mosquitoes, except near ponds and water courses there are mosquitoes. We are not subject to tornadoes or cyclones as in some parts of the West. Our labor is mixed, mostly negroes. Farm hands are paid from $8.00 to $12.00 per month and rations. A ration consists of four pounds of bacon and one peck meal for six day’s work. Where it is white labor they are boarded in the family of the farmers. The negroes here are strong competitors in many of the trades, especially carpenters, blacksmiths and painters; also masons. Our climate is so mild that it is not necessary for comfort for a house to be plastered or ceiled inside; very few farmers’ houses are; neither is so expensive clothing required as in the North. On the nights of the fifth and sixth instant we had very little ice on shallow water on the ground; those were the coldest nights this winter. I have seen snow a few times in last twelve years; have seen none this winter. Ploughs can run all winter. A few peach trees are in bloom now (February 14th). There are no government or State land to homestead or for sale in this State, but plenty of lands for sale either unimproved or improved. We cultivate too much land here; we should cultivate less and work and fertilize better.

The people are anxious for Northern farmers to come and settle here and will render home seekers any service in their power, furnish them stock to ride or drive and take care of them whilst they are procuring locations, etc. I would not advise anyone without some capital to come; anyone coming should come with the expectation of working for himself and not for others. I notice that the Big Four and St. Louis Railway are selling round-trip tickets to points in Georgia, good for twenty days, for one fare. These tickets are issued for March 8th and April 9th.

ITEMS ABOUT FARMS AND FARMERS

Small Farms In Florida.

It seems strange that farmers of the North will purchase land for farming purposes at $100 or more per acre when in the South there is an abundance of land at from $5 to $25 an acre, from which, acre for acre, a larger revenue can be derived. Because of the variety of products raised in the North no farm of less than forty acres is regarded as sufficiently large to maintain a family.

The tendency in the North is towards larger farms, and many farmers are not satisfied with a farm of less than 160 acres. Make the acreage only forty, and the farm is worth $4000. On twenty acres of land in Florida that can be bought at $25 per acre, one can get a larger annual return in dollars than he can from the $4000 farm in the North.

This statement needs no proof. It is being demonstrated year by year all over the State, and only needs to be understood by the great army of home-seekers of the country to bring such an influx of them as will make Florida one of the most populous portions of the country. Thousands of people in the North want just such homes as are within their reach here. They have not money enough to pay for a satisfactory home at the high prices of the North, but they possess enough property to be able to secure a good home in Florida. If they could only be enlightened as to what awaits them here, they would come in force.--The Citizen, Jacksonville, Fla.

Improved Methods of the Southern Farmer.

The Savannah Morning News sees cause for favorable comment in the improved methods of the Southern farmer. It says: “Contrasted with the average Southern farm of fifteen years ago, the average Southern farm of today presents a striking object lesson of the New South’s progress. Plows, hoes and other agricultural implements are no longer left in the fields, or without shelter in the barnyards, overnight, or for weeks at a time, according to the whim of the user. Wagons and carts are not left standing, covered with mud, at the most convenient place to drop them. Harnesses are not thrown on a fence, or a peg, or a hitching post, exposed to the weather, until wanted. These things now have their orderly places under shelter and are properly looked after. Rainy days are no longer spent in loafing about the kitchen, but employer and hired man put in the time of the rainy day in the barn mending harness, oiling machinery, tightening wagon bolts, etc.”

All of this goes to show thrift and economy, and partly explains why many a Georgia farmer has surplus funds to loan at interest.

Condition of Georgia Farmers.

At a meeting of the Georgia State Agricultural Society, held at Brunswick, Ga., February 14, Col. Waddell, the president of the society, said, in an address:

“The condition of the farmers of Georgia is not really understood. The view entertained by the optimist being too rosy, that of the pessimist too depressing. They are nearer out of debt than they have ever been, they have more home-raised supplies than for many years, and they are managing their affairs with more judgment and prudence than ever before. But they experienced the pinching scarcity of money, and some of them are burdened with debts which would have been cancelled but for the shrinkage in the value of their lands and the products of their farms. You who are practical farmers know there is no money in raising cotton at seven or eight cents a pound, and that our only hope of success is in producing every possible article of necessity at home. Fortunately, we are not dependent on the cotton crop, for in variety and diversity of products, and in soil and climate, Georgia produces unequalled advantages, and these advantages are being recognized and utilized more and more every year.”

Texas Tobacco Growers Organize.

The tobacco growers have formed an association for mutual benefit and for the promotion of this branch of crop cultivation. It is to be called the Cigar Leaf Tobacco Growers’ Association, and intends publishing a paper in the interests of Texas tobacco.

O. A. Smith, of Willis, is president; H. F. Malone, of Willis, vice-president, and J. F. Irvine, secretary and treasurer. The executive committee is composed of the following: Clark Arnold, of Galveston; J. M. Buckley, of Willis; T. G. Wools, of Hondo; J. H. Bruning, of Galveston; J. J. Strozier, of Willis; C. F. Rhode, of Galveston; O. A. Smith, of Willis, and H. S. Elders, of Willis.

The by-laws of the National Tobacco Growers’ Association, as adopted at Washington, are adopted by this association.

Profitable Rice Culture.

The New York Journal of Commerce, in an article on rice growing in Southwestern Louisiana, says: A couple of years ago the crop was excessive, but the last crop is well sold up, and there is little doubt that the consumption of rice will vastly increase in this country. Scientifically and practically it is one of the best of foods, and the taste for it is growing. Portions of this section of Louisiana are sufficiently watered by natural overflow, but a good deal of it is artificially irrigated. Some of the farmers say that it is a little more work to cultivate rice than wheat or corn, but most of them think it is less; there is no great difference in the cost. The general testimony is that it costs $5 or $6 an acre to cultivate it, exclusive of irrigation, which, as already said, is not always necessary. A dollar for seed, two for cultivation and two for harvesting is the estimate of many farmers, though a few put the cost at a dollar or two more, and some go as high as $10 or $12. Ten barrels in the rough is regarded by many cultivators as a fair average crop, but yields of twelve and fifteen barrels are common. The farmers generally get from $2 to $3 a barrel, and sometimes a little more. A rice cultivator at Lake Author, La., writes: “I can say honestly and positively that a man can make a big fortune in four or five years raising rice.... I know a number of farmers that have for the past three years averaged fifteen barrels per acre, and their net average price per barrel for the three years was $2.85.” These figures give gross receipts of $42.75 per acre.

Fruit Growing in Louisiana.

At the recent annual meeting of the Louisiana State Agricultural Society, F. H. Burnette, the horticulturist of the State Experiment Station at Baton Rouge, read an interesting paper upon Southern fruits.

Prof. Burnette has given much time to the development of the fruit industry of Louisiana, experimenting upon the different varieties of fruit indigenous to the climate, utilizing his knowledge of foreign horticulturing and experimenting at the station. He gave a full report of these experiments. The paper was of especial interest to small fruit growers, dwelling upon the varieties of peach, pear and orange which can be grown with success in Louisiana, and of the new variety of Japanese and Chinese plums and persimmons which he has grown at Baton Rouge with success.

At the same meeting Judge Lewis, of Opelousas, spoke of the cultivation of figs as a marketable crop and one which has never failed of producing remunerative results by close attention to the cultivation of the trees. He also spoke of the preserves made in Opelousas of the rind of the sour orange and also of figs, which are sold in the stores of Opelousas. The fig tree is self-supporting, and as an orchard which produces and supplies itself, being free from climatic influences. He spoke at length upon the possibilities of canning the fruits of Louisiana and shipping them to Northern markets.

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The farmers of Sumter county, Georgia, the county in which Americus is located, are more and more abandoning the all cotton business and turning to the growing of fruits.

* * * * *

Mr. J. B. Dubose of Ridge Spring, Edgefield county, S. C., has experimented with great success in the growing of celery. It is claimed that the product of his farm is equal in every way to the best Kalamazoo celery.

* * * * *

The business of truck gardening around Weldon, N. C., has undergone great development in the last year or two. To accommodate this growing industry the Wilmington & Weldon railroad is putting in additional side track facilities.

* * * * *

The State of Georgia has one of the agricultural experiment stations established by the United States Government, which has been in existence about four years. Its purpose is to aid the farmers of the State by experiments in the preparation, fertilization and cultivation of the soil, etc. It is maintained by an annual appropriation of $15,000 by the United States government. The property used for the purposes of the station belongs to the State. This property consists of 130 acres of land with buildings, including dairy, ginnery, greenhouse, tobacco barn, laboratory, etc.

A bulletin of results is published once a quarter and is sent free to any citizen of Georgia engaged in any branch of farming. The station is located at Experiment, near Griffin. Its organization is as follows: R. J. Redding, director; H. C. White, Ph. D., vice-director and chemist; H. N. Starnes, horticulturist; James M. Kimbrough, Agriculturist; H. J. Wing, dairyman.

* * * * *

A number of Germans living near Axtell, Texas, have recently engaged in the apiary business with much success. Mr. L. J. Miller who lives in that neighborhood produced 1187 pounds of honey last year, and 165 pounds of beeswax. The honey brought twelve and a half cents and the wax seventeen and a half cents.

* * * * *

A recent bulletin issued from the Texas Experimental Station gives some interesting comparisons of the four leading crops in the State. The cotton crop of Texas covers 4,520,310 acres, and is worth $69,439,476; the corn crop covers 3,166,353 acres and is worth $28,429,125; the wheat crop covers 442,337 acres and is worth $5,244,303; the sweet potato crop covers 29,928 acres and is worth $1,503,764. According to the above statistics the value of each crop per acre is: Cotton, $15.36; corn, $8.94; wheat, $11.88; sweet potatoes, $50.24. The cost of growing an acre of either is not materially different. Here is a big difference in favor of sweet potatoes.

* * * * *

Mr. Jere Mabry, of Belton, Texas, reports as the result of his work for 1893, on a rented farm of eighty acres, cash receipts aggregating $1,974.91. Besides what he sold he raised, for the most part his food supplies. His total cash expenses were $506.85, leaving $964.06 as the net cash profit of the year’s work.

* * * * *

An intelligent farmer of Rowan county, N. C., said the other day: “The farmers in my county were never better off. They have plenty of corn, wheat, meat and other produce, and many of them have a bale or so of cotton stored away. There is no necessity for the cry of hard times among the farmers of Rowan. True, they have little money, but they do not need it, they have all at home that they can consume. Why, many of the farmers are raising everything they need on the farm. I know of men who now have plenty of meat who a few years ago did not raise a hog, so you see they are growing wiser and are prospering as all good farmers should. True, a few of Rowan’s farms are mortgaged and badly in debt, but they are generally of that sort that lounge around town in idleness the greater portion of the time and let their crops go, trusting to a mortgage for the next year.”

* * * * *

The “Southern Pines Orchard Co.” purchased in 1890 1200 acres of wooded land near Southern Pines, and 360 acres of this has been cleared and planted as follows: 51,000 peach trees, 5000 pears, 1000 plums, 16,000 blackberry. In that section the peach crop never fails. Last year the new trees bore a few peaches and this year they are expected to bear freely. The president of the company is Mr. J. Van Lindley, of Greensboro, N. C., who is also proprietor of the Pomona Nurseries at Greensboro.

* * * * *

During the last few weeks there has been much activity among the farmers in the vicinity of Oglethorpe, Ga., and from all parts of the county as well. The time has again rolled round when they must plant their crops, and right energetically are they going at this duty. Not near so much fertilizer is being used as in previous years, and the farmers of Macon county, Ga., are reported by the Macon News to be in better condition than in a long time. Nearly all have more than a sufficiency of home-raised meat to supply them during the year. Few complaints are heard of hard times.

* * * * *

Some advanced tobacco growers in Texas have been experimenting with the object of growing a fine quality of Cuban cigar leaf, and the results, it is said, have been entirely satisfactory. The reports from Brazos, Paris, Calhoun, Nueces, Liberty, Grimes, Walker, Montgomery and other counties show that a very fine quality of Cuban tobacco can be grown in Southern and Southeastern Texas.

* * * * *

The rice acreage in Orange county, Texas, will be materially increased this year, and there will be almost a corresponding increase in fruit farming, for which that section is eminently adapted.

* * * * *

Mr. G. W. Duncan, of Greenville, Ala., has fattened thirty-nine hogs this season on twenty acres of ground peas, and says there are enough peas in the ground now to fatten as many more hogs and to keep them fat for a month yet.

FRUIT-GROWING POSSIBILITIES OF THE SOUTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD.

_By Clark Bell._

I am asked to contribute a paper to the SOUTHERN STATES, giving my impressions of my first trip South. I will reply as I have done to my friend Mr. Clark Howell, of Atlanta, Ga., for the columns of his paper, from the stand-point of a business man and farmer, and not in my relation to the party who recently visited the seaboard States, composed in the main of medical editors, their wives and friends.

Too much praise cannot be awarded Dr. W. C. Wile, of Danbury, Conn., for promoting and organizing the party of Northern medical editors and their friends, thus bringing to their attention the unusual advantages of the Piedmont section of the Southern seaboard States to Northern emigration.

These distinguished gentlemen will shortly communicate their views through their respective journals, but what I shall say now will be quite free from all professional considerations.

Either North Carolina or Georgia must be regarded as the paradise of the fruit grower. I have had a large experience in vine growing and wine making in Western New York, having planted one of the first vineyards on the shores of Lake Keuka, and being one of the promoters of the Urbana Wine Co., and I am familiar in a practical way with that most remunerative culture of the black raspberry, in Yates county, New York, which furnishes the evaporated dried fruit so much now in demand, and may fairly be classed as one qualified to speak, in a practical way, as to the general features of fruit growing. The wine-growing industry, yet in its infancy in North Carolina, has gone far enough to demonstrate an assured success in a lucrative way, to those who carry on its productions on business methods. The experiments made at Southern Pines, N. C., have gone far enough to leave no manner of doubt of splendid results in the near future.

The difficulty with which the Northern grower has to contend are the high price of land and labor and the early frost. Labor in both Georgia and North Carolina is abundant and cheap. Eight dollars per month will cover the wages of men with rations, which can be computed at $2.50 per month. Frost is quite out of the question. The cost of land in desirable locations is as low as $3 to $10 per acre, and if unimproved land is taken a net of $10 would be ample to put good land ready to plant the vine. The plow can run in both the States every month in the year.

By way of Norfolk, the markets of New York and Philadelphia are as accessible to the fruit growers of these States as to Western New York, in both time and rate. North Carolina seems to have been chary of the immigration of foreigners. Of that great flood of European blood that has for the past twenty-five years poured into the ports of New York, neither North Carolina nor Georgia has received anything worth naming. It has swept like an enormous wave over the West, but not on the South Atlantic seaboard. You would secure those who are desirable and by proper work could do so.

The citizens of Northern States do not correctly understand your section. They should visit and carefully look into the capacities of your States. Nothing dispels illusions like contact and personal examination. The North is full of active, energetic, industrious men inured to labor, who do not know what advantages you offer or they would flood into and buy up your unoccupied lands and form a splendid factor in the New South now forming. Would the Northern settlers be hospitably received? At the North this would be a controlling question. General Manager Winder, of the Seaboard Air Line, assures me that in his State the Northern settler would be most welcome. Ex-Governor Jarvis, of North Carolina, in a recent conversation, assured me that the Southern welcome would be whole-souled, full and free from the slightest danger of interference. I have equally high authority in Georgia of a similar state of public sentiment. Northern settlers would, strange as it may sound to you, need to be assured in these respects.

The present depressed state of financial affairs is not against such an immigration now. Your splendid railways should give especial facilities in reduced freights to actual settlers. Austin Corbin, one of our greatest railroad workers, transports free over his railways every pound of material an actual settler puts on his land in improvements. I would advocate free transportation of the household goods of every actual Northern settler by your great railway lines.

I do not dare to state what I think of the future of North Carolina and Georgia within the next fifty years. Yes, twenty-five years. No Georgian or Carolinian would believe as much as I see coming in the next generation. With a climate that not only rivals, but excels that of Italy, I say to Georgians and North Carolinians if you will yourselves open to Northern eyes the enormous advantages of your grand States, you will witness a spectacle within the next thirty years as marvelous as that we saw in Atlanta, where a magnificent city has arisen, phœnix-like, from the ashes made by Sherman’s army. And the new States of Georgia and North Carolina will come into a new and grander life, which will be as much a wonder to the next generation as Atlanta is to this.

THE SOUTHERN STATES.

THE
SOUTHERN STATES.

AN ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY MAGAZINE
DEVOTED TO THE SOUTH.

Published by the
Manufacturers’ Record Publishing Co.
Manufacturers’ Record Building,
BALTIMORE, MD.

SUBSCRIPTION: $1.50 a Year; $1 for Six Months

WILLIAM H. EDMONDS,
Editor and Manager.

BALTIMORE, MARCH, 1894.

The SOUTHERN STATES is an exponent of the Immigration and Real Estate Interests and general advancement of the South, and a journal of accurate and comprehensive information about Southern resources and progress.

Its purpose is to set forth accurately and conservatively from month to month the reasons why the South is, for the farmer, the settler, the home seeker, the investor, incomparably the most attractive section of this country.

An Opportunity for Capital.

In the general discussion of the various agencies to be depended on to bring about an enlarged and accelerated Southern immigration movement, there seems to have been little thought given to private enterprises as one of them.

A great deal has been said about the duty and self interest of railroads in the matter, and much has been spoken and written in advocacy of aggressive measures on the part of the States. It is quite true that the railroads should pursue the most liberal policy in fostering and developing immigration. Every farmer who settles in the territory of any road becomes a permanent producer of traffic for that road, and whether the railroad company be the owner of lands or not, the most profitable expenditures it can make are such as will help to populate and build up the country tributary to its lines. It is also true that every Southern State should have an immigration department or bureau, conducted not by small politicians, but by the most capable men to be had, and not supported by niggardly appropriations, but amply supplied with sufficient money to make possible the most progressive and comprehensive methods.