Chapter L: S. PACKARD, Pine Bluff, Moore county, N. C., formerly of (2)

But, unfortunately, the ideal is not going to be reached as to either the railroads or the States. Both will in the aggregate come very far short of what ought to be done, and this will be more pronouncedly and lamentably true of the State governments.

Outside of these agencies, then, how is the cause of immigration to be advanced? The question and the conditions giving rise to it suggest an opportunity for capital and enterprise. In almost any part of the South very large areas of land may be gotten together at very low prices. With money enough to buy and properly develop farm lands, and with judicious management, there is hardly any limit to the profitable business that could be done by immigration or colonization companies. For example, a company that could buy say 10,000 to 20,000 or more acres of land in a body, or make up this acreage by consolidating a number of farms bought from different owners, and then divide this up into small farms of twenty, forty, eighty or more acres, construct roads throughout the entire area, drain the whole of it, put it all in the best shape for the most advanced farming or gardening operations, building houses, &c., and then direct themselves to the work of colonizing it or selling to individual settlers, such a company, with sufficient capital and properly managed, could quickly settle up almost any area of land and make enormous profits for its stockholders. Besides the tracts sold as small farms, there would necessarily be one or more centrally located village sites which would become immediately valuable as town property. There is nothing easier than getting Northern farmers to go South. The conditions of farming and of life at the South are so incomparably superior to those at the North that they need only to be pressed upon the attention of Northern farmers to be availed of. In its millions of acres of cheap lands the South has the advantage of an entirely new and undeveloped country, and has with this all the advantages and comforts and attractions of an established and advanced civilization. The South is in the main more healthful than any other part of the United States, its range of farm and garden products is greater, it offers better opportunities for profitable agriculture, and it is in all respects a section where life can be lived in greater comfort than at the North. Convinced of these facts, hundreds of thousands of substantial and well-to-do farmers in other parts of the country would quickly move to the South. In fact, there is even now, all over the North and Northwest a disposition to go South. As was stated in a letter published in the January number of the SOUTHERN STATES, “there are thousands who would move South if somebody would start the ball rolling.” These are the conditions. Properly utilized, they can be made to furnish a wide and rich field for some of the millions now lying idle and non-productive in the financial centres.

The Virginia Legislature and Immigration.

The legislature of Virginia, in its very proper and commendable desire to promote immigration to the State, is discussing the enactment of some extraordinary legislation. A bill now before the senate provides for the appointment of a commissioner of immigration, who shall keep on file in his office a description of any lands submitted to him by any owner or real-estate agent, and shall receive a commission of not more than 5 per cent. upon the sale of any such lands in lieu of salary. Evidently, to the mind of the author of this bill, the benefits of an increase in the population of the State terminate with the sale of lands, and are confined to owners of such lands. The narrowness of a measure that would impose upon any one class of people the expense of an immigration department is manifest. The innumerable and widely ramifying benefits resulting from judicious immigration effort are shared by everybody, and the expense should be borne by everybody.

Aside from this inequity, there are many objections to the plan of giving the proposed commissioner an interest in the sale of lands. As an officer of the State he should be free from any possibility of bias as to any part of the State or any specific properties.

Let a commissioner of immigration be appointed by all means, and let an adequate fund be set apart for the expenses of his department, but let this come out of the receipts from taxes, and thus be equitably apportioned among all classes.

Florida’s Obligation to Mr. Disston.

To say that no other State owes as much to any one man as Florida owes to Hamilton Disston, of Philadelphia, is a comprehensive statement, but it is probably true. About fifteen years ago some Northern capitalists were induced to consider the idea of building railroads in Florida. It was found on investigation that the State could not grant any of its lands to railroad companies, since all the lands of the State were covered by a general mortgage which had been made to secure the State bonds. Without this inducement nobody was willing to put a dollar into railroad building in Florida, for the reason that the early returns from traffic could not be expected to be such as would justify it. In this emergency Mr. Disston came to the rescue of the State. He bought 4,000,000 acres of Florida land, paying for it enough to discharge the entire State debt, thereby releasing the lands owned by the State, and placing it in a position to make grants to railroads. Immediately following this, contracts were made with New York capitalists, and Florida entered upon an era of railroad building and general development.

Of course it is beyond question that the enormous resources and capabilities of Florida would in time have brought railroads, with the development that accompanies them, but it is also true that but for this timely intervention and help from Mr. Disston, the beginning of this period of growth and prosperity would have been delayed, possibly many years.

Following this timely succor, Mr. Disston has now put the State under further obligation to him for one of the most stupendous and one of the most successful works of general improvement ever undertaken in this country. As was briefly told in the February number of the SOUTHERN STATES, he has reclaimed for the State many millions of acres of land that but for his enterprise would have been permanently a waste. True, he has himself reaped large rewards, as it is proper that he should have done, but this does not lessen the benefits the State receives, and moreover, the risk has been all his own, since the only return the State was to make to him for the millions of dollars spent in his drainage works was a share of the lands reclaimed from overflow.

The value of the services that Mr. Disston has rendered Florida are beyond estimate.

How to Do It.

The News, of Birmingham, Ala., very correctly maintains that reduced railroad rates will not accomplish much in the way of inducing immigration, unless the measure be accompanied by liberal advertising. The News says:

Ten good settlers can be brought down from the effects of good
advertising, without any half rates, where one can be brought
down from the mere effects of half rates, and as a rule those
who come solely on account of low rates never become settlers,
but combined, the two do good service, reaching the better
class.

The SOUTHERN STATES is the channel through which to reach the attention of the North and Northwest. It is the only Southern immigration journal; the only publication that can be looked to for information about the soil, climate, agricultural capabilities, etc., of the whole South. It is alone in this field. There has never been a time when there was such eagerness for facts about the South. From New England, the Middle States, the West, and notably from the Northwest, requests for sample copies and letters of inquiry about the South are pouring in upon us.

Advertisements in the SOUTHERN STATES will be read every month by many thousands of people all over the North and Northwest, who are eagerly seeking such information as will enable them to determine what part of the South is most likely to suit them.

No Such Danger.

The Boston Herald, in an editorial on the work of the SOUTHERN STATES, says: “The reports are extremely favorable in regard to richness and variety of crops, and the chief danger seems to be that the speculators in Southern lands, as well as many of the railroads, hold their lands at such prices as to dissuade the poorer but industrious class of immigrants from taking them up.” The danger apprehended by the Herald does not at all exist. There are many millions of acres of the best land in the South that can be had for prices that are merely nominal. The trouble is not that there is any fault to be found with the land, but there are not people enough in the South to cultivate more than a small part of the land, and the surplus is, therefore, in a sense valueless, no matter how rich and productive it may be. There are a good many millions of acres of railroad land, and in some of the States State land, that can be had for such prices and upon such terms as nobody can find fault with. And as to the private holdings of individuals, there is too much land in every part of the South unused, and therefore too many owners anxious to sell a part of what they own, to make possible any speculative putting up of prices.

How to Reach Prospective Immigrants.

That North Carolina needs immigrants of the right kind is too
universally admitted to call for proof; and that all efforts
heretofore made in this direction have been practically
a failure seems also clear. It seems equally clear that
circulars, handbooks and the State press fail of their purpose
in this respect, because they never reach the class we desire
to influence.--The Gazette, Washington, N. C.

The Gazette is right. Many thousands of dollars are wasted in printing books and pamphlets that nobody ever reads. There is a way, however, to reach the class it is desired to influence. It can be done through the SOUTHERN STATES. The SOUTHERN STATES is a journal of information about the South. It is engaged in the work of making known the resources in soil, climate and agricultural capabilities, of the Southern States. And such is the desire for accurate and comprehensive information about this section that although the magazine has been in existence only a year it goes into every part of New England, the Middle States, the West and the Northwest, and is read by thousands of farmers and business men who are seeking to inform themselves as to the most attractive localities in the South.

The SOUTHERN STATES furnishes a channel through which to reach effectively the class of possible immigrants needed in the South.

Work of Southern Railroads in Promoting Immigration.

In the general and very proper demand for railroad aid to the cause of Southern immigration, it should not be forgotten that many of the Southern roads have been for years giving conspicuous and liberal attention to this work. Through the efforts of such roads, for example, as the Mobile & Ohio, the Illinois Central, the Baltimore & Ohio, the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, the St. Louis Southwestern and others, hundreds of thousands of substantial farmers, artisans and business men have been induced to move to the South, and all of those roads are constantly enlarging their immigration work. A notable instance of broad and progressive management in furtherance of immigration is furnished by the Georgia Southern & Florida road, whose methods were made the subject of an article published in the January number of the SOUTHERN STATES.

Other Southern roads are becoming roused on this subject. The Seaboard Air Line system, which has a management as progressive and liberal as any road in the country, is preparing to inaugurate a comprehensive immigration policy, and the Richmond & Danville road is also adopting measures to induce Northern farmers to settle along its lines. The Louisville & Nashville and the Central Railroad of Georgia systems are also taking advanced steps in the same direction.

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The introduction of artesian water in some of the Southern towns, notably Albany and Brunswick, Ga., has revolutionized the health of those places; the two localities named, which were formerly noted for the prevalence of malarial and other disorders, being now equally noted as health resorts. The last Georgia town to enter the artesian well procession is Quitman, Ga. The April number of the SOUTHERN STATES will contain an exhaustive article by Mr. James R. Randall, on drinking water. Mr. Randall has for many years been making investigations on this subject, and his article will be a revelation, not only to the general public, but to most physicians and hygienists as well.

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The Augusta Chronicle, quoting the sage remark of a man who had amassed much wealth, who when asked how he had made his money, said that he always bought when everybody wanted to sell, and sold when everybody wanted to buy, urges that the present is the time for people with money to make investments. Prices of every sort have reached a minimum, and in view of the assured early reaction and the inevitable rebound to very high prices that will follow the long term of depression, this would seem to be as the Chronicle suggests, the time to buy things.

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No sooner is Atlanta well under way with its great International Exposition project for 1895 than Macon comes to the front with an exposition enterprise of its own. A movement has been started to hold an exposition in the fall of 1894. These Georgia towns are great hustlers.

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In Mr. Clark Bell’s article, published elsewhere, there is this statement:

“Austin Corbin, one of our greatest railroad workers,
transports free over his railways every pound of material
an actual settler puts on his land in improvements. I would
advocate free transportation of the household goods of every
actual Northern settler by your great railway lines.”

This is commended to the attention of Southern railroad managers.

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The Legislature of Virginia seems to have some spite against real estate agents. Not satisfied with the present burdensome and wholly unjust tax imposed upon real estate dealers in the State, it is proposed now to make the real estate agents bear the expense of a State immigration commission.

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Mr. John T. Patrick, of Southern Pines, N. C., secretary of the Southern Bureau of Information, deserves much commendation for his enterprise and public spirit in having arranged for an excursion through the South of the editors of a number of leading Northern medical journals. This undertaking of Mr. Patrick’s is in furtherance of an effort to correct the impression that still exists in the minds of a great many Northern people that the South is an unhealthful section.

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At the last meeting of the Commercial & Industrial association, of Montgomery, Ala., the president said in his monthly report: “The association should advertise the city and hold forth its advantages in every way possible which will attract capital and cause enterprising citizens to locate here. A new era of growth and enterprise will come apace and Montgomery should be prepared to reap the rewards that flow from it.” This admonishment may be heeded with profit by every community in the South.

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Mr. Clark Bell, the writer of the article on the fruit growing possibilities of the South Atlantic seaboard, is a New York lawyer, and editor of the Medico-Legal journal of New York. He has had a quite extensive practical experience in fruit growing, and his judgment as to the capabilities of the South for this branch of agriculture is that of a competent expert. Mr. Bell was one of the party of editors of medical journals who recently made a tour of the South Atlantic States under the auspices of the Southern Bureau of Information, located at Southern Pines, N. C.

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It seems incomprehensible to a Southern man that there should be any doubt in the minds of Northern people as to whether Northern settlers will be well received in the South or not. Mr. Clark Bell, in an article in this number, says: “Northern settlers would, strange as it may sound to you, need to be assured in these respects,” and he thinks it necessary to quote the assurances on this point that he had from distinguished Southern gentlemen. Not only will Northern farmers and business men be well received in the South, but they will find awaiting them a most eager welcome. The newspaper utterances all over the South, the statements of public men, the personal letters to the newspapers from farmers and merchants, the actions of commercial bodies, indicate not only a welcome to the Northern settler, but a keen appreciation of the value to the South of immigration from the North, and a most eager desire for this immigration. No Northern man, who is respectable enough to have standing in his own community at home, need have any fear but that he will find in the South the utmost consideration and good will.

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The superior train service on the Chesapeake & Ohio is well known to all patrons of that system. During the month of January train No. 1 made the run between Washington, D. C., and Cincinnati, twenty-nine days, exactly on time, and on the other two days lost but twenty minutes. Train No. 2 made every trip between the cities on time, and the “Fast Flying Virginian,” one of the finest express trains in the country, reached Cincinnati thirty out of thirty-one trips on time, although it was an hour late out of Washington on seven trips, caused by waiting for connections. This is a month’s record that the operating department can be proud of.

Immigration News.

The Yazoo Delta.

The assistant land commissioner of the Illinois Central Railroad, Major G. W. McGinnis, in a recent interview on the subject of immigration to the Yazoo Delta, spoke as follows:

“I believe that the time has now come for the introduction of white labor. Our road, besides having agents all over the Northwest, have men in Germany and also in Holland, gathering families together to settle up our land. There are many residents of Dakota and other Northwestern States who want a milder and a better climate, with a soil more fertile than that of the Northwest. All these advantages are possessed by the Delta.

“The greatest interest is manifested in the movement. Scarcely a day passes but what we receive from fifty to seventy-five letters of inquiry.

“The colonists who have already taken advantage of our offers and settled along the Delta, are making money hand over fist. They are raising cotton, corn, vegetables, stock and fruit. The largest peaches I ever saw in my life came from the Delta.

“When our work is done we will see every man his own landlord, and by the way, these foreigners are apt to steer clear of that condition, so prevalent in the South, of being land poor. They want no more land than they can cultivate with the aid of their families, say forty acres. In fact, some of them buy no more than twenty. They make up the greatest population for agricultural districts possible to imagine. They have made the Northwest what it is.

“When the movement is once fairly started there will be no stopping the rush of immigration. Northern people all move in bodies. When one comes all come.”

Alabama Farmers Invite Settlers From the North.

The following resolutions were adopted at a meeting of the State Agricultural Society of Alabama, held at Birmingham, February 23:

_Resolved_, By the State Agricultural Society of Alabama, that we invite to Alabama all honest and industrious farmers that should be desirous of changing their home, and extend to them a cordial welcome, assuring them that the right hand of fellowship will be extended to them, and that feeling that is always accorded one good citizen from another will be extended to them by the farmers of the State.

_Resolved_ (2), That we will cordially indorse and sustain our honorable commissioner of agriculture and his excellency, the governor of Alabama, in a vigorous and continuous effort for immigration made through the Department of Agriculture under existing law. At the same meeting, Mr. Chappell Cory, editor of the Birmingham Age-Herald, read by invitation a paper in advocacy of efforts to induce immigration from the North.

The Railroads and Immigration.

The organization of land companies for the purpose of inducing immigration to West Tennessee is most commendable, especially when these companies are conducted upon the plan of that one which proposes to open up the territory along the line of the Paducah, Tennessee & Alabama railroad. The capital of the company is very small, and there is little profit in the enterprise for those who have formed the company. They intend merely to direct the attention of immigrants to the advantages which this heaven-blest region holds for the thrifty and hard-working farmer. The road is a new one, but it runs through a most fertile region, especially adapted to small farming. The Illinois Central railroad has done much to attract settlers to Mississippi, and every railroad in this section should be equally alert. It was the railroad agent who made States out of Territories in the Northwest, and it is a most assuring sign that he is now taking hold of the Southern country. The railroad company is the best of all immigration or colonization societies. It can accomplish more at less expense than any other. The example set, therefore, by the officials of the Paducah, Tennessee & Alabama, is commendable in the highest degree. The prosperity of a railroad depends upon the population of the country through which it runs, and the more rapidly the country is built up the sooner will the stockholders realize upon their investment. The public has a profound interest in such enterprises. The Appeal-Avalanche has no support to give to purely speculative and boom schemes, but it is in favor of all enterprises the object of which is to put forward the advantages of soil, climate and distributing facilities which Tennessee and other Southern States enjoy to such an exceptional degree.--Memphis Appeal-Avalanche.

The Louisville & Nashville is Pushing Immigration Work.

Col. C. P. Atmore, the general passenger agent of the Louisville & Nashville railroad, is pushing the matter of immigration to the South with great vigor. When approached on the subject recently he said that the Louisville & Nashville road had several agents in the Northwest and in Europe, who were sending families down rapidly. It is the intention of the road to put between 200 and 300 families on its line between Paris and Memphis.

The Louisville & Nashville is now running home-seekers’ excursions from points at a rate of one fare for the round trip, with a view to encouraging the movement. It owns many thousand acres of land between New Orleans and Flomaton, Ala., and also between Pensacola and River Junction.

On the Nashville, Sheffield and Florence branch of the line in question there is a Norwegian colony of about 200 families. This colony has done remarkably well, and the road is much pleased with its venture.

The Texas Coast Section Filling Up.

At Velasco, Texas, recently several carloads of fine draft stock belonging to newly arrived farmers from Nebraska were received, and the next day several carloads of household goods for another colony from Kansas, who had bought farms in Brazoria county, were unloading. M. M. Miller, of the Velasco National Bank, and others have received letters from parties who are coming with families and stock from both of these States and from New Mexico, Iowa, Missouri and Illinois.

At the present rate Brazoria county’s population, it is said, will be doubled by the end of the present year; at least 90 per cent. of increase began coming in less than two years ago.

Colonization Plans for Florida.

Mr. O. J. Johnson, excursion, land and colonization agent, of Minneapolis, has been prospecting in Florida for a site for settling immigrants from the North and Northwest.

Mr. Johnson will take a good many hundred people South, he says, if he has the right encouragement. He was the immigration agent of the Northern Pacific railroad for nine years.

Four business men of Minneapolis are interested with Mr. Johnson. They are Mr. N. C. Westerfield, Dr. William E. Wheelock, Messrs. P. S. McKay and C. E. Channel. Their idea is to purchase a tract of land of from 10,000 acres upward, divide it into smaller farms and lots and then sell these lots to such settlers as they want.

“I’ve had a deal of experience in this line,” said Mr. Johnson, “and know what is to be done. I am well satisfied with Florida’s climate and attractions, and know that we can settle many hundreds of good people. We have a large number of inquiries already, and I am satisfied we can place all the people we want to handle. The farmers of Dakota and other points in the Northwest are dissatisfied, and hundreds and hundreds of them will come the moment they are assured that this State promises them a fair living with the work they have to devote now to a mere existence.”

A Fruit-Growing Association to Locate in Texas.

Officers of the Rock Island Fruit Growers’ and Improvement Association are in Texas inspecting lands. It is the purpose of the association to acquire a large tract of land in the Gulf coast region of Texas, in the centre of which to lay out a town site, giving to each member of the association a town lot. A maximum and minimum ownership of land is restricted by the by-laws of the association. Reservations are made for school, church, town hall, park and cemetery purposes. No lands can be held in unimproved state for speculation; a certain portion of each owner’s land must be improved during the first year by planting fruit, vegetables or other horticultural products, and at least two acres additional each succeeding year until each owner’s lands are under cultivation. When the products are ready to ship the shipments will be made in car lots to the most advantageous markets of the country.

The association expects to number 100 families, composed of persons who will go into the Texas coast region and make their homes, their previous occupations having been fruit growers, gardeners, mechanics from the government works on the island of Rock Island, clerks, artisans, etc. While their fruit trees are developing the members of the association will raise garden truck for shipment. The officers of the association propose visiting the most advantageous sections of the Gulf coast, from Houston to Corpus Christi, and will devote about four weeks time to that purpose. The originator of the enterprise is Mr. I. E. Whistler, whose attention was directed to Texas as a fruit growing country by seeing and testing some fine specimens of peaches shipped from Tyler, Texas, last June to New York City, which rivaled the best California peaches in size, and far surpassed them in flavor. The officers of the association making this tour are I. E. Whistler, president; J. O. Logan, vice-president, and W. E. Hilton, trustee.

The Great Work of the Mobile & Ohio.

Although the Mobile & Ohio Railroad only traverses a few miles of Alabama, yet it has done probably more in the way of inducing immigration to the State since 1890 than any other line, through extensive advertising, combined with excellent folders and maps, which have been extensively distributed through Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, etc. They also pursue the same liberal policy with local land agents and all engaged in promoting immigration along their road, distributing their advertising matter, and granting to them courtesies which are necessary to insure local parties to endeavor to give them the benefit of their work in securing immigrants. Alabama wants 10,000 families from the North to settle within her borders in the next twelve months, and only by hard combined work of the people and railways can it be accomplished, and now is the time to organize and keep the ball rolling. Let us get a move on us in this matter, and we can accomplish our object.--The News, Birmingham, Ala.

Farmers to Organise an Immigration Society.

The farmers around Augusta, Ga., are becoming interested in a proposed plan to organize an immigration society, and many have expressed a desire to take an active part in perfecting a permanent organization of that kind.

A prominent merchant farmer from Wilkes county stated recently that the people of his section of the country were very much enthused over the organization of an immigration society in Augusta.

“You would be greatly surprised,” he said, “to know how many of our merchants and planters have taken up the idea, and how anxious they are to see such an organization established at Augusta. Our people are willing to help in every way possible, for they realize that they are to reap the benefits, and consequently are desirous of sharing the labors.

“You see, the farmers are generally land poor throughout the entire country, and what they want to do is to get some one who will work, and take some of it off their hands.”

Immigration Bill Before the Virginia Legislature.

The legislature of Virginia is trying to devise some method to promote immigration to the State. A bill has been introduced in the Senate, creating the office of Commissioner of Immigration of Virginia, and providing for the election of such an officer, who shall properly advertise the advantages of the State and shall, at the request of any real estate agent or owner of land, keep on file a list of lands for sale and shall refer all contemplating purchasers impartially to the various sections of the State, according to their requirements.

It is provided that the commissioner shall receive a commission of not more than 5 per cent. upon the sale of any lands sold through his department. Any owner of land situate in Virginia shall have the right to list for sale the same with the Commissioner of Immigration, who shall advertise, without cost to the owner, the fact that such lands are offered for sale.

The bill concludes by providing that the expenses attached to such an office shall be paid out of the fund arising from the tax on manufacturers of fertilizers.

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Colonel E. S. Jemison, president; M. G. Howe, general manager; Major Tom Cronin, superintendent, and General John M. Claiborne, immigration agent of the Houston East and West Texas railway, are trying to interest the people along their line in some plan whereby immigration can be brought to that section of the State.

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Mr. J. T. Merry, of Harlem county, Nebraska, writes from Velasco, Texas, to his home paper as follows:

“Here we are in Velasco, Texas, the land of sunshine and flowers. Surely this is destined to be a large city; within three miles of the mouth of the Brazos river, and a large, deep harbor, where ships come and go at pleasure, and load right here in this city heavier than at any point on the Gulf coast. Of course the country is new, but vegetables and fruit trees of all kinds are growing nicely. Good fruit and vegetable land can be bought from $4 to $12 per acre. The country all around, except on the Gulf side, is a gentle undulated plain, which is being settled with people from the Northern part of the State and from the Dakotas and Nebraska in the main, and Iowa, though some are from Missouri and other points.”

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A Swedish gentleman who has had considerable experience in establishing colonies of his countrymen in the United States, has been conferring with Mr. John M. Lee, of Shreveport, La., representing the land department of the Vicksburg, Shreveport & Pacific Railroad Co., and looking over the ground, and says he can locate several hundred families if the conditions are favorable.

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Mr. W. E. Pabor, founder of the Pabor Lake colony, near Fort Meade, Fla., has recently been visiting his old home, Denver, Col., and has induced a number of families to move to Florida.

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There is more land open to settlement in Arkansas than there was in the Cherokee Strip. The Little Rock Democrat wisely says: “Counting all kinds of our public lands in Arkansas, government, State and railroad, we have nearly 7,000,000 acres. If we could divide these lands into homestead tracts, advertise them extensively and donate them at stated periods to actual settlers, what an impetus would be given to the State. What the State needs is not money for her lands, but active and enterprising home builders, who would become wealth producers and tax builders. A liberal land policy on the part of the State and the railroads would soon result in a vast increase in our wealth and population.”

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One of the largest excursion parties of land-seekers that ever went South over the Mobile & Ohio railroad arrived at Mobile lately in charge of Mr. F. W. Greene, general agent of the Mobile & Ohio railroad, at St. Louis. The party consisted of all classes of home-seekers and investors, who have become interested in that section of country through the efforts of the passenger department of the Mobile & Ohio railroad. Over 200 people made up the excursion, some stopping off at places in Mississippi and Alabama. They went from Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, Indiana and Ohio.

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Further developments regarding the steamship line to be established between Galveston and Denmark indicate that it will be of great importance to the Southwest. It is intended to use the vessels in transporting immigrants from Norway, Sweden and Northern Europe direct to Texas and the West by way of Galveston. Heretofore these passengers have been sent to New York, and from that point reached their future home by rail. The Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce has become interested in the project and heartily approves it. Vice-Consul Thygge Sogart, of Denmark, now located in Kansas City, is a promoter of the line.

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Mr. Hamilton Disston says that Mr. Schulzen, a prominent Scandinavian, will establish a Scandinavian colony near Kissimmee. Mr. Disston met Mr. Schulzen at the Columbian Exposition, and impressed him with the fertility of the soil of Southern Florida, and advised him to try it. This he did, and became so satisfied with the prolific growth of sugar and peaches that arrangements have been made to settle Scandinavians on the South Florida railway, between Runnymede and Kissimmee, at once. Mr. Schulzen’s father and brother are now North disposing of their farms preparatory to settling in Florida.

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The last monthly report of the president of the Commercial Industrial Association, of Montgomery, Ala., contained this paragraph:

“There is now a general interest in the subject of immigration to the South. The marked falling off in railroad earnings, with prospects for continued small returns, has aroused the great lines in the South to the necessity of making well directed efforts to induce Northern and Western people to visit the South and invest along the various roads. Some of the leading lines have called conventions of their agents to discuss ways and means to promote an increase of traffic and business. This association, with the other commercial bodies of the State, will assist in every laudable effort to induce desirable people to build up the waste places of the State, increase the population and promote the general prosperity.”

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The North Alabama Immigration Company is an organization formed at Florence, Ala., for the purpose of bringing immigrants to Lauderdale county and surrounding sections. The officers are J. Overton Ewin, president; R. G. Banks, general manager; R. T. Simpson, Jr., attorney, and John Rather Jones, secretary and treasurer. The company expects to take several excursion parties to that section of Alabama from the Northwest. Dr. N. A. Nelson is the Northwestern agent at Dawson, Minn.

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The section of the valley of Virginia around Lexington has attracted some attention from prospective purchasers from the North, West and Northwest, who are going to locate at some point in the Shenandoah Valley. Additional inquiries are being made for homes and farms, and the prospects are that as soon as the weather opens a number of these parties will pay that section a visit to look over the country.

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The immigration movement to Southwest Texas is progressing at a lively rate. The new settlers are mostly from Kansas and Nebraska.

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