The people of the South have so long been accustomed to buying their meat from Northern and Western markets that the suggestion of packing-houses in the Southern cities is full of novelty and surprise. Packing-houses distributed over the Southern territory would be the incentive for farmers to raise more hogs and cattle and a better quality, and thus create a source of revenue now practically closed to them.
Are not our people convinced of the folly of selling their marketable live stock to drovers and buying their meat, thus paying the cost of transportation both ways, besides the profit each handler obtains?
Pork and beef raised on our own farms and cured in our own packing-houses would keep at home the large sums of money sent off annually for the meat supply of the people.
The grocerymen of Jackson purchase every year about $100,000 worth of meat and lard for consumers in this immediate section, and it is easily seen that a packing-house in Jackson would be a profitable industry. It would furnish a home market for hog and cattle-raisers, and stimulate the production of the best qualities. Every step in this direction is an important gain, and the subject deserves the earnest attention of our live and progressive citizens.—The Whig, Jackson, Tenn.
The vessels that are used in the business are chiefly schooner-rigged and vary in size from five to twenty-five tons burden. They carry crews ranging from five in number to fifteen for the largest vessels, nine men to the boat being the average number. The odd man in each case is the cook, who remains aboard to provide for the inner wants of the crew (generally amazingly large) and sails the craft while the balance are off in the small boats called dingeys in search of sponge. Each vessel is provided with poles of various lengths, from fifteen to fifty feet, to be used according to the depth of water in which they are working, which have attached to them three pronged hooks shaped like the teeth of a garden rake, somewhat heavier, with which the sponge are detached from the objects to which they are adhered and drawn into the dingey.
Two men are necessary to operate a dingey, one, the “hooker,” using the pole and the sculler keeping the boat in motion, following the directions of the hooker, where he leans over the side looking through an ordinary wooden bucket with a glass sealed in its bottom for the sponge, which, when discovered, is secured with the hooks.
The fisherman are most all former inhabitants of the islands; many of them have lived in the Bahamas, and there are about equal numbers of white men and negroes.
They are designated “Conchs” by the people living upon the mainland, from their making use of that shell animal for edible purposes when living upon their native islands.
A trip is of eight to ten weeks’ duration, unless it is mutually agreed by the owner and the crew that it shall end sooner, and a “broken” trip is one which does not pay expenses incurred, and does not happen often, except during a period of disaster like that just passed through.
When the trip is finished the catches are carried to market where the purchaser bids upon them at a certain price per bunch or for the lot, having previously estimate from his thorough knowledge of the goods their value in pounds.
Before sending them to the various markets they are first trimmed neatly and cleaned of all rock and shell, and then packed in bales ofconvenient sizes in a compress which reduces them to small bulk and renders them easily handled.
Owing to the scarcity of the supply the demand is at present very great, and excellent prices are obtained.
The Newnan (Ga.) Cotton Mill (6300 spindles) will put on a night force to operate its mill, so that it can catch up with the orders with which it is now overrun.
Mr. L. C. Porter, proprietor of the Windsor hotel of Minneapolis, Minnesota, has decided to remove with his family to Wilmington, N. C. He has been in North Carolina since the 28th of December.
“I want to get away from the cold, long winters of the Northwest,” he said, “and I came here to prospect. I have been traveling North, East, South and West, and my observation is that you have the finest climate I have ever seen. If you hadn’t this advantage in climate and your fine opportunities for investment along with it, you wouldn’t catch me settling here.”
It is said that Mr. Porter has in hand a plan to establish a colony of Scandinavians in Eastern North Carolina. He expects to settle from fifty to 100 thrifty families somewhere near Wilmington. For twenty years he has been engaged in fostering colonies on the new lands of Wisconsin and Michigan.
A Young Men’s Business Association is to be organized at Knoxville, Tenn.
Savannah is getting up a commercial club.
Macon, Ga., expects to be visited about March 10 by a party of investors and home-seekers from Indiana, who have been induced by the Macon Bureau of Advertising & Information to go down on a prospecting trip.
The Commercial Club, of Anniston, Ala., is going to have an exhibit room in which to show the agricultural, mineral and industrial resources and products of Calhoun county.
Mr. Chappell Cory, secretary of the Birmingham Commercial Club, has taken great interest in the matter of immigration. Recently at a meeting of the State Agricultural Society, he delivered a very able address on the subject, which was exceedingly well received by the farmers before whom it was delivered. In the latter part of February, at his invitation, a number of the real estate men of Birmingham met to discuss the subject of immigration. Mr. H. D. Lane, commissioner of agriculture of the State, was present, and addressed the meeting. Following his speech there was a general discussion of the subject, after which the following resolution was adopted:
Resolved, That we cordially endorse the movement for immigration as outlined by Commissioner Lane, and pledge him our hearty co-operation, both as real estate men and as citizens of Birmingham and of Alabama.
At Atlanta, Ga., a $500,000 company has been formed to engage in establishing country banks wherever good openings are found.
A large party of prominent coal operators of Chicago and other Western cities have been examining Kentucky coal fields with a view to handling Kentucky coal on a large scale, and also of investing in coal properties.
A new water-power cotton mill will be built in South Carolina on Penny-Shoals, Tiger river, near Wellford, by a company recently incorporated as the Tuscapan Mills Co. Mr. C. E. Fleming, of Spartanburg, is at the head of the enterprise.
The public lands in Arkansas, government, State and railroad, aggregate more than 7,000,000 acres. There are over 4,000,000 acres of government lands subject to homestead entry. Any male citizen of the United States who is the head of a family, or over twenty-one years of age, is entitled to enter 160 acres of land by paying the following fees: For forty acres, $6; for eighty acres, $7; for 120 acres, $13; for 160 acres, $14. The State has also 1,200,000 acres which it will sell at $1.25 per acre, or any citizen over the age of twenty-one years, or the head of a family, can secure a donation of 160 acres by paying a fee of $10. In addition to this the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. has over 2,000,000 acres which it will sell on five years’ time at from $2 to $5 per acre, receiving notes in payment therefor, bearing 6 per cent. interest. During the last two years there have been donated to settlers 166,940 acres of land, and deeds made to 131,957 acres to settlers who had fulfilled the requirements of the law.
It is not generally known that nearly the whole of the extreme western part of Texas is fenced in and divided up into enormous pastures. There is one pasture, for instance,traversed by the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad, that it takes a fast express train four hours and a quarter to cross. Another, in Dickens, Crosby and Emma counties, belonging to the Espinella Cattle Co., contains over 1,500,000 acres. If this pasture were in the shape of a square it would be about fifty miles each way, requiring therefore, 200 miles of fencing.
The Empire Plaid Mill, at High Point, N. C., is crowded with orders. The plant has been running on double time for some months until very recently.
From the annual report of the Board of Trade of Eufaula, Ala., of which Mr. C. B. Goetchius is secretary, it is learned that Eufaula has had a very active business year in spite of the hard times. The residences and stores that have been built during the year aggregate in cost about $50,000. As an indication of the comparative business done in 1892 and 1893, it is stated that the cash receipts at the railroad office were $8500 greater in 1893 than in 1892. During the recent period of financial and business disasters and failures there was not a single failure in Eufaula, and not a business house closed with the exception of one case of temporary embarrassment, which was quickly arranged.
The Liberty Woolen Manufacturing Co., of Bedford City, Va., has secured another contract from the government to make goods for the army. This time the order calls for 7000 broad yards at a cost of over $8000.
The last annual message of the mayor of Augusta, Ga., which has been printed in pamphlet form, is a very comprehensive review of the city’s affairs for 1893.
Sixty newspaper men from North Dakota are visiting Texas.
The Eufaula Cotton Mill Co., at Eufaula, Ala., has just completed an addition to its plant at a cost of $50,000. At the same place a new cotton mill is being built by another company—the Chewalla Cotton Mill Co.
The managers of the Seaboard Air Line have become greatly interested in the matter of immigration. Mr. R. C. Hoffman, of Baltimore, the president of the line, and Major J. C. Winder, the general manager, at Wilmington, N. C., are considering plans for procuring the settlement of Northern farmers in their territory. The Seaboard Air Line traverses a country suited in the highest degree for farming and stock raising, and especially for growing early fruits and vegetables.
The citizens of Tuskaloosa have organized “The Commercial Association of Tuskaloosa county.” The officers and directors are: President, A. F. Prince; Vice-president, George W. Christian; Secretary, Walter Guild. Board of Directors: Festus Fitts, Victor Friedman, W. C. Jemison, J. C. Harrison, A. S. Vandegraaff, H. F. Hill, George A. Searcy, Charles R. Maxwell, T. N. Hays.
The Richmond & Danville Railroad has issued a very handsomely illustrated book, “Snow Balls and Orange Blossoms,” a copy of which will be sent on application.
Mr. George W. Truitt, of LaGrange, Ga., has published a pamphlet called “Talks to the Farmers of Dixie.” It is full of valuable advice and suggestions.
The Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. has in hand contracts that will keep it busy for two years.
Several hundred laborers have been put to work on the Chesapeake Beach railway, which is to connect Washington, D. C., with a proposed resort on the Chesapeake bay in Southern Maryland. It seems remarkable that this superb body of water has been up to this time so little made use of by the cities of Washington and Baltimore. This new resort at Chesapeake Beach will be a boon to both cities. It will be within less than an hour’s ride of Washington, and will be readily and quickly accessible from Baltimore also.
The Chesapeake Beach railroad passes through a section of country admirably suited to truck gardening as well as general farming. Mr. Washington Danenhower, whose office is in the Loan & Trust building, Washington, has already had some negotiations looking to the locating of a colony of farmers from the Northwest along the line of the road.
The Sibley Manufacturing Co., of Augusta, Ga., has begun an extensive addition to its cotton mill. The output of the mill will be greatly increased.
It is astonishing to people who are unacquainted with the details of Florida business life to hear of the amount of businessdone in the little towns in the interior and along the coast. Indeed, it surprises some of those who live here to see the summing up of the annual business done by individual firms in those towns, and if one didn’t in some way get at some tangible reason for these figures one would be disposed to question their correctness. But when one drives out into the surrounding country and sees the many orange groves and the many broad acres planted in vegetables a key is found that unlocks the situation.
In Florida, instead of large areas of land in cultivation, there are the native growths only dotted here and there with openings, and planted to fruits and vegetables. It requires but little stock to cultivate them and but few hands, comparatively speaking, to do the work. The crop raised on one acre of Florida soil on an average is equal to that of fifteen to twenty acres in cotton regions, and every dollar is for export, the grower receiving the cash for his crop, and then he reinvests it for the necessaries of his household and farm. There is where the volume of business done by the Florida merchants comes in.—Jacksonville Times-Union.
The cultivation of the castor bean may be attempted in Texas on a larger scale than heretofore. The United States Consul at Breslau, Germany, Mr. Frederick Opp, has been making inquiries about the climate and soil of Texas for Max Strahl, who is thinking of purchasing land in Bexar county for the purpose of raising the plants mentioned. According to Mr. Strahl’s statement, the castor plant requires much less rain than cotton; can be harvested in a much shorter space of time; requires only one-third of the amount of labor, and yields a much greater profit to the producer.
In a letter to the San Antonio Express Mr. Opp says: “I have sent a sample of the beans to the Department of Agriculture at Washington. I trust that Mr. Strahl will soon positively decide to settle in Texas and inaugurate the enterprise. He is an expert in castor plant growing and raises large quantities in India.”
The Rock Island & Texas Town Co. owns a 300 acre tract of land near Boyd, Texas, which has been divided into ten acre tracts for small fruit and vegetable farms.
The citizens of Nacogdoches, Texas, have organized a society, the purpose of which will be to induce immigration to Nacogdoches county and advance the general interests of that section. Lists of lands for sale, with prices, &c., and general information about the locality will be furnished on application. The president of the society is George H. Davidson.
Mr. Guy M. Bryan, a banker of Bryan, Texas, who owns large areas of property in Brazoria county, near Velasco on the Gulf coast, is arranging to bore artesian wells to flood a considerable area of ancient lake beds, which he will convert into extensive rice farms.
A report now being prepared by Mr. F. H. Newell, of the United States Geological Survey, on the condition, amount, and location of the public land still in the hands of the government, shows that there are about 600,000,000 acres of government lands. The report states, however, that all the vacant land remaining to the government in the West is either mountain country or else land which, owing to scanty rainfall or other conditions, is fit only for grazing.
The National Builders’ Association of the United States will hold its next convention in Baltimore in October, 1895. Mr. Noble H. Greager, of Baltimore, is president of the association; Mr. Charles A. Rupp, of Buffalo, first vice-president; Mr. James Meath, of Detroit, Mich., second vice-president; Mr. Wm. H. Sayward, of Boston, secretary, and Mr. George Tapperk, of Chicago, treasurer.
The Rock Hill Cotton Factory Co., of Rock Hill, S. C., which has heretofore made yarns only, is now adding 192 looms to its plant.
Mr. George C. Power, industrial commissioner of the Illinois Central and Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Companies, in an interview with a reporter of the New Orleans Picayune, said: “I have been down south of the Ohio river with two or three parties who are desirous of locating wood-working factories. Those parties have expressed themselves as being well pleased with the lumber found there and the facilities for handling it; also the welcome which had been given them by the Southern people. It is more than likely two of the parties will locate within the next week or ten days.
“I find that although the banks wherever I visited have plenty of money, yet they cannot loan it to advantage. At some places the loans to farmers are being curtailed, but in themajority of places the applications for loans are fewer than in several previous years. The hotels are crowded with traveling salesmen, all of whom appear to be doing good business, selling principally dry goods, clothing, hats, caps, shoes and articles of similar character, and very few provisions. Many places are purchasing a better class of dry goods than they had in twenty years back. The merchants anticipate a very good spring trade.
“To show how small farmers are doing, I will cite one case. In the Yazoo Delta a farmer has grown all the provisions—corn and seed—for his new crop, and has sufficient left over to purchase a reaper for his coming hay crop. He has contracted for the produce of five acres of potatoes, seven acres of onions, and he will be self-supporting from this date forward. He is only one of a great many, and it seems to me that with fewer applications for loans and less demand for money to carry cotton, capital must seek other sources of employment. A large portion of it will most probably be invested in sound manufacturing industries, which will make a market for raw materials that are now to a great extent valueless.”
Charlotte, N. C., has grown tired of its inert Chamber of Commerce and proposes to organize a more active and progressive Board of Trade.
The Chamber of Commerce, of Huntsville, Ala., is receiving many inquiries from Northern farmers, who want to know about farming conditions around Huntsville.
It is stated that there are not enough houses at Columbia, S. C., to accommodate the increasing population, and that an excellent opportunity is given to erect an office building.
The secretary of the Bureau of Information of Newport News, Va., is in constant receipt of letters asking for information about Newport News and the adjacent country.
The Denison Land & Investment Co., of Denison, Tex., has elected A. P. Childs, of Bennington, Vt., President; E. H. Hanna, of Denison, Vice-president, and A. H. Coffin, of Denison, Treasurer.
C. S. Durling, of New York, was the originator of the refrigerator business in Florida, being the first man to run iced cars for the transportation of fruits and vegetables to New York. Before he began to do so berries could only be shipped by express, and only then when the weather was cool and the berries sour. Now Florida berries are sent North as late as May 1.
A refrigerator company will begin business at Gainesville, Fla., this week, and for the extra charge of ten cents per package they insure the arrival of truck at destination in the same condition as when put aboard the cars here.
Some of the cities of Tennessee have become interested in the idea of having an exposition to celebrate the State’s centennial. At a meeting of the Nashville Commercial Club a resolution was adopted providing for a committee of twenty-five members, composed of seven from the Commercial Club, six from the Board of Trade and three each from the Southern Engineering Association, the Historical Society and the Art Association, to make arrangements for a convention to be held in the city in March to discuss plans for an exposition.
The Board of Trade of Nashville, Tenn., is one of the few such concerns that has life and activity and progressiveness. Major A. W. Wills, the recently elected secretary, is a man full of zeal and energy, and he will make the board of trade a power in the advancement of Nashville and the surrounding country.
The stockholders of the Luna Cotton Mills, Fort Mill, S. C., have voted to extend the plant and add considerable new machinery, including 100 looms.
Within the last twelve month taxable values in Texas have increased $30,000,000.
The Richmond & Danville Railroad Co. has issued the following circular offering special inducements to settlers:
“The Richmond & Danville Railroad adopts this means as one of its many methods of bringing to the attention of prospectors and home-seekers the numerous advantages possessed by the territory which it traverses.
“Realizing that each section of this great land of ours is dependent to a certain extent upon the prosperity of the whole, we have no desire to depreciate any section, but to makeknown the possibilities which are within the reach of those who contemplate a change.
“We have received hundreds of inquiries from parties located in the North and Northwest who desire information in regard to a milder and more congenial climate, the character of soil, etc. Those and all others who may desire information, we invite to visit points upon our lines which cover the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, and to induce immigration we will make tobona fideprospectors special concessions in rates from our Eastern junction points.
“The climate and products of the last four States above named are well known, but Virginia and North Carolina have not been so fortunate in this respect.
“The climate in these sister States (Virginia and North Carolina) is about the same, showing an average the year around of about 55° Fahrenheit, with no extreme heat or cold, which enables farmers to raise two or more crops upon the same land in one season. The soil is adapted to any crops which are raised in the Southern or Middle States, and is especially favorable for trucking, the profits of which are enhanced by reason of the close proximity to the best Eastern markets, viz: Lynchburg, Richmond, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. It is also admirably adapted to fruit and grape culture.
“Without discriminating in favor of any portion of either of these States, we feel at liberty to direct especial attention to the Blue Ridge section of North Carolina as being excellently adapted to the culture of fruit and grapes, the mountains and hillsides at many points being now covered by vineyards and orchards, which yield handsome revenues to their owners, while the rich valleys are utilized for cereals and tobacco.
“Considering the productive qualities of these Virginia and North Carolina lands, they may be had at most reasonable prices and on accommodating terms.
“In order to protect ourselves against imposition, it is necessary to throw some safeguard around the issuance of reduced rates for prospectors, as above indicated, and as all prospectors, before starting on a trip of this nature, correspond with some land agency or real estate agent, we will request all applicants for these reduced rates to obtain identification at the hands of such agent or land agency as they may have corresponded with.”
Inquiries may be addressed to W. A. Turk, general passenger agent, 1300 Pennsylvania avenue, Washington, D. C.
The Southern Pacific Railroad Co.’s bridge to be built across the Mississippi river at New Orleans, La., will, it is believed, be the largest steel railroad bridge in the world, considering the quantity of metal used in its construction and its length. It will be a double-track bridge about 10,500 feet long. The approach spans will vary from twenty-five to 150 feet in length, according to the height of the towers. The main river bridge will be built on the cantilever principle, and will be 1070 feet in length, with spans of 608 feet on either side. The pier foundations will extend from a point eighty feet below the bottom of the river, and will be sunk by open dredging. The estimated weight of metal required is 25,000 tons, or 50,000,000 pounds. The cost will be about $5,000,000.
The bridge will give the Southern Pacific system an all-rail entrance into New Orleans, and form a most important link in railroad communication between Texas and the Southwest and the Gulf States east of the Mississippi river.
The largest railroad bridge completed is over the Firth of Forth in Scotland. The main structure is 5330 feet long, but the approaches are said to be shorter than the New Orleans bridge.
In two suits recently brought against the Texas & Pacific road, a New Orleans judge has rendered a decision that is of very general interest. The decision in brief is that a railroad is bound by the admissions contained in the bill of lading just as the shipper is bound by the terms. Several weeks ago two suits, exactly the same except for the amounts involved and the complainants’ identity, were filed against the Texas & Pacific road. In both damages was asked for cotton received in a damaged condition, which the bill of lading sets forth had been received by the road in good condition.
In both cases the plaintiffs introduced the bills of lading in evidence. They showed by the signature of the authorized agents of the road that the cotton had been received by the road for shipment in good condition. Theroad in its defense attempted to prove that the cotton was received in the same condition as when delivered, and that it had not been damaged in transportation.
The plaintiffs both proved that upon the receipt of the bills of lading, specifying that the cotton had been received by the road in good condition, they had paid for it by sight drafts in favor of the shippers.
In his decisions, both of which were the same, the judge held that evidence to disapprove the statements contained in the road’s bill of lading was inadmissible, and that the bill of lading placed the responsibility for the condition of the cotton with the road. For these reasons judgment in both cases was for the plaintiff. The conclusion of the court was that when the consignee pays by sight draft upon the averment of the bill of lading evidence that the goods were not received in good condition is not admissible.
It is stated that in furtherance of a plan to shorten the distance between St. Louis and points in Western Texas and Mexico, a syndicate has been formed to complete the Red River & Southwestern road, which is projected from a point on the Rock Island road in the Indian Territory through Western Texas to San Angelo, to connect with the Southern Pacific at Spotswood Junction. It is estimated that the new route would shorten the distance between Mexico and St. Louis fully 600 miles, while points in Southwestern Texas will be 200 miles nearer the latter city.
C. W. Cheers, formerly assistant general freight agent in Birmingham of the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham, but who resigned on January 1, has been appointed general freight and passenger agent of the Savannah, Americus & Montgomery, with headquarters at Americus.
Much interest has been aroused by the bills pending in the Virginia legislature to incorporate the Richmond & Northern and Richmond & Manassas roads. The former is claimed to be a projected road from Richmond to Fredericksburg, and the latter between Richmond and Manassas. Either would form part of a line from Richmond very nearly to Washington, and it is intimated that the Baltimore & Ohio may be interested in one.
It is stated that the Baltimore & Ohio is preparing to build its branch road from a point north of Georgetown, D. C., to Fairfax C. H., Va., on which work was begun some time ago, but suspended for some unknown cause. Fairfax is but a short distance from the Richmond & Danville road, with which the Baltimore & Ohio has close relations, and it is evident that the building of this branch means a connection with the Richmond & Danville.
The Norfolk & Western road is also securing the necessary legislation to enter Washington.
One of the indications of the rapidly-developing trade between the North and South is the establishment of a fast through freight from New York to the South by the Atlantic Coast Line. Freight under the new regulation, no matter how small the consignment, is rushed through from the North without delay. With each succeeding season this service has been expanded and improved, keeping pace with the development of the industries which produced it, until finally it has reached a point of usefulness and perfection upon which it would be difficult to improve. Until the present season, however, this special service has been confined to a northward-going schedule, but lately it has become apparent that the demand for a similar service from the North to the South was daily becoming more and more urgent. The Atlantic Coast Dispatch has also established a line of refrigerator cars out of New York for Charleston, the service being designed to furnish the safest and most expeditious transportation for all southward-going perishable freight. These cars will prove of especial advantage to the large shippers of apples, butter and other perishable articles.
It is believed that the Richmond & Danville’s present management will soon secure a seaboard outlet at Norfolk or Portsmouth, either by acquiring the Atlantic & Danville, which, as stated elsewhere, is to be purchased by the English bondholders at foreclosure sale and reorganized, or by building a new line. The plans of a new company which has been formed to build an extension of the Atlantic & Danville from Danville to Bristol, Tenn., passing through rich and undeveloped coal and ore lands, are told of elsewhere. The building of the proposed Virginia Seaboard & Western road, and the control of the Atlantic & Danville by the Richmond & Danville, would give the latter not only a new seaboard terminus, but also a largecoal, timber and ore traffic from Tennessee and Virginia, as well as establish a new route from Tennessee, Kentucky and the Northwest to the Atlantic.
The projectors of the Gulf & Interstate Railroad to extend from North Dakota to the Gulf of Mexico have secured an option on property at Port Bolivar, on Galveston bay, opposite Galveston, Texas, with a view to making that the terminus of the road.
The New York, Texas & Mexican and the Gulf, Western Texas & Pacific roads, both parts of the Southern Pacific system, have elected the following-named officers: President, J. Kruttschnitt; vice-president, W. S. Hoskins; secretary, B. M. Smith; treasurer, W. J. Craig.
A movement is on foot to establish a steamship line between Jacksonville, Fla., and Providence, R. I.
The Baltimore & Ohio is said to be planning to extend its Valley division from Lexington to Roanoke.
The Clyde Steamship Co. is considering an extension of its service to New Orleans.
Business on the Norfolk & Southern is developing to such an extent in North Carolina that the company has decided to establish six new stations in that State.
The Illinois Central Railroad is exhibiting great energy in the matter of inducing immigration to the South. Mr. E. P. Skene, land commissioner of the road, at Chicago, Captain J. F. Merry, Manchester, Iowa, assistant passenger agent, Mr. J. M. Eberle, of Chicago, land and immigration agent, Mr. C. W. McGinnes, land commissioner of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad, located at Memphis, Mr. J. T. Savage, division superintendent of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad, at Greenville, Miss., are all giving active and comprehensive attention to this work.
Mr. C. J. Haile, the general passenger agent of the Central Railroad, of Georgia, is taking advantage of the excursion rates offered to prospectors, by authority of the Southern Passenger Association, to distribute in the Northwest circulars setting forth the agricultural attractions of the country tributary to his roads. Mr. Haile is an enterprising and progressive railroad man, and fully comprehends the value of having the country traversed by his road thickly populated by Northern farmers.
Mr. W. C. Rinearson, general passenger agent of the Queen & Crescent route, is trying to arrange with the Southern Passenger Association to have tickets for his line, via Chattanooga, carry the privilege of stopping over at Chattanooga, so that travelers may have an opportunity of seeing Lookout Mountain, the National Military Park and other Chattanooga sights.
At the request of Col. C. P. Atmore, general passenger agent of the Louisville & Nashville Road, the passenger agents of roads having interests at Memphis, Tenn., met in that city February 14, to arrange a passenger association.
At a meeting of the truck farmers, held at Chattanooga, S. C., February 19, to consider the matter of transportation of vegetables and fruits to New York, a member had this to say in praise of the famous Old Dominion line of steamers:
“They have fast steamers especially constructed for carrying highly perishable freights; they have ample tonnage for handling all the business that comes to them, and their deliveries in New York are not only convenient to the trade, but are made more rapidly than any other line with whom we do business.
“In addition to their already large fleet they are about to launch two splendid new steamers, the “Jamestown” and “Yorktown,” which will be ready by April 10, and are expected to be the fastest coastwise steamers out of New York.
“Our experience with the Old Dominion Co. covers more than thirty years. During that time they have always been found willing to do all in their power to assist the grower both in improved service and in giving as low rates of freight as are consistent with fast transportation.”
The Atlantic Coast Line system has been one of the most liberal and progressive roads in the South in fostering the trucking business along its line. It has made a specialty of its truck traffic for many years, and to its enterprise is largely due the magnitude of the business which is now done out of Charleston.
The Middle Georgia & Atlanta road, from Atlanta to Milledgeville, has just been completed.It is seventy-five miles shorter from Atlanta to Milledgeville by this route than by any other. Over forty miles of the line between Covington and Eatonton has no bonded debt whatever, $450,000 of the stock being taken and paid for by Georgia people. The ultimate destination of the line is Savannah. W. B. Thomas is general manager.
The Atlantic & Danville, which extends from Danville across Southern Virginia to the Seaboard, has attracted considerable interest from the fact that a company has been organized, composed largely of bondholders of the road, to build a line from Danville to Bristol, Tenn., to be called the Virginia Seaboard & Western. The Atlantic & Danville is to be sold by order of the court on April 3, and, it is expected, will be purchased by the bondholders. The new road, if built, will be about 115 miles long and connect with the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia system at Bristol. It would give the latter an outlet on the Atlantic seaboard and develop much mineral property of east Tennessee and southern Virginia, the product of which now has no means of reaching furnaces.
The great Four Seasons Hotel at Harrogate, Tenn., has been reopened.
Messrs. G. S. Atkins & Sons, proprietors of the Ocean Hotel at Asbury Park, N. J., have bought the Brock House at Enterprise, Fla., together with 2300 acres of adjacent land.
Messrs. Stephen Green, of Philadelphia, Martin Lane, of Wilmington, and Levi Z. Condon, of Baltimore, have organized the Luray Caverns Co. to operate the Luray Caverns, build a hotel, &c.
The proprietors of the San Marco hotel, of St. Augustine, Fla., as one method of entertaining their guests, allow them to pick, for use in the hotel, vegetables and fruits from the hotel garden, and on pleasant mornings many of the guests may be seen before breakfast picking radishes, peas, tomatoes, lettuce, &c., to be served at meals.
The business men of Columbia (S. C.) are talking about raising money to build a great hotel. Since the change in the Atlantic Coast line route, by which Columbia is put on the main line between Florida and the North, it is thought that a big resort hotel could do a profitable business.
The outlook for the coming season at Mountain Lake park, in Western Maryland, is very promising. Twenty or more new cottages will be built, and many of these have already been spoken for.
The Royal Poinciana hotel, of Lake Worth, Fla., which has been erected on the site of the old McCormick house, is doing a large business.
The Macon (Ga.) news is urging the building of a great hotel at Macon in emulation of Savannah and the Florida cities.
The Florentine hotel, at Huntington, W. Va., has passed into the hands of Messrs. L. H. Cox and R. F. Jones. Mr. Cox is from Louisville, Ky.; Mr. Jones formerly conducted the Joy house at Findlay, Ohio. They state that large improvements will be made.
The Hotel Indian River, at Rock Ledge, Fla., has 350 guests and expects to be crowded all through the month of March.
A new hotel is to be built at Charleston, S. C., at a cost of something like $450,000. It is to cover a block 150×545 feet. The plans provide for broad verandas adjoining the parlors and opening upon a garden space to be larger than any similar grounds owned by any hotel in the country.
Fort Worth, Texas, expects to have a new and first-class hotel.
The court has refused to confirm the recent sale of the Oglethorpe hotel at Brunswick, Ga., and has ordered a new sale.
A reader of theSouthern Statesliving at Florence, Ala., sent a copy of the January number to a friend in England, and has received from him the following very interesting and noteworthy letter, which we are permitted to publish:
“Many thanks to you for the January number of the magazine, “theSouthern States,” which I received this morning. I presume you sent it, knowing that the interestingletters relating to the subject of immigration to the Southern States so fully coincide with the views I have long held and have expressed to you concerning immigration from Great Britain to the South.
“Those views were verified again only a few days ago in the following manner: A friend of mine, who is a builder, wished to “talk with me about America,” rather a big order if he had considered a little, as having but limited means and a growing family he “thought of emigrating.”Whereshould he go? He spoke of many of the States I know well, but he knew nothing of the South, except that they had oranges and alligators in Florida. He was a fairly intelligent man, too. After a long conversation, the length of which you will understand when I tell you that I conducted my friend from the blinding blizzards of Nebraska to the genial sunshine of Alabama, I promised to get him some printed information from some of the emigration agents in London, so that he could form an idea as to the requirements, capabilities and resources of the South. Well, I tried to keep my promise, and called on numerous agents. I could obtainany amountof information about any part of Canada and the Western States, but in this great city of 6,000,000 of people, I, an experienced Londoner, could not obtain a line about Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana or any other Southern State, except Florida, and as I enjoyed life in the latter State for over three years I could describe a gopher or a “Florida cracker,” better than the agent could. Is it to be wondered at that people from England know the West and are ignorant of the beauties of the South? There, you have your Southern difficulty in a nutshell. We have over 35,000,000 of people on these little islands, very few of whom really know anything whatever of the Southern States. We have tens of thousands of men—small capitalists, manufacturers, skilled artizans, farmers, dairymen, market gardeners, and business men of all classes—who would give up the, in most cases, hopeless struggle here (hopeless as far as a comfortable competence is concerned), and cross over to the Southern States with their wives and familiesif they only knewthe power of their skill, industry and perseverance in a country where those qualities will give an ampler, fairer and a more just reward than here. These people, the hewers of wood and drawers of water, who are the backbone of every prosperous country, require information,official,authoritative,reliableinformation, about Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, &c., and it is simply because such information is lacking, difficult to obtain, or unreliable when it is obtained, that so many go West and Northwest, whilst others, whocouldbe induced to go South, stay and struggle on in the old rut for want of being waked up. I feel perfectly sure that if a bureau of information were established here in London and supplied with literature, maps, &c., descriptive of the Southern States, and properly advertised throughout Great Britain, the results would be quickly felt, whilst the expense would be infinitesimal compared with the benefits which would eventually accrue. Such a bureau, however, would have to be managed by a man (or men) of integrity and experience, who should be as unbiased as possible, and entirely free from sectional prejudice. An agent should have sufficient business tact to know that he would never benefit Georgia or Alabama by disparaging Colorado or California. I know that many agents in England try to detract from every other State, and every other section of a State, except the little spot they are for the time pecuniarily interested in getting settled up. Their aims are narrowed down to simply getting commissions on the railway and ocean tickets, and a small prearranged percentage on any little land purchase the immigrant may make from the agent in America, who has glowingly, and very, very often untruthfully, described.
“A Southern States bureau of information, such as I suggest for London, should be kept entirely free from the machinations of the unscrupulous land speculator, who, we all know, has in too many cases most seriously injured States and localities, simply to gain some small selfish end of his own. In my opinion the expenses of such a bureau of information should be borne by Southern railroad enterprise, and the London bureau should work in conjunction with established agencies, or sub-agencies, in all the large towns and cities in Great Britain, and also be in close touch with agencies in the United States, working with the same object, viz.: To induce immigration to the Southern States. The South as it really is can stand on its own merits, and is good enough for anybody, no matter what class—capitalists, cotton kings, iron masters, coal owners, farmers, or earnest, industrious artizans. The South can supply every requisite for all, from the raw material to the finishedproduct. These are a few of the facts that people here in England are ignorant of andshouldbeinformed about, whilst many of your own people in the North and Northwest are not much better informed on many points. A couple of summers ago I was laughed at at my hotel in New York because I remarked, “I cannot stand this sultry heat any longer;I’ll go South,where it is cooler.” I was considered a “bullheaded Britisher;” but I was right, anyhow, for itwascooler in Florence, Ala., than in New York!”
Mr. George W. Truitt, of LaGrange, Ga., one of the most advanced and successful of the present generation of progressive Georgia farmers, writes to theSouthern Statesas follows:
“Noticing your commendable efforts to advertise the attractions and resources of the South and induce immigrants to seek homes in this country, I ask space in your columns for a review of some of the inducements this immediate section offers.
“This county—Troup—is in Western Georgia with the city of LaGrange as its county seat.
“LaGrange has a population of about 4,000 and is beautifully situated, 850 feet above sea level—on the Double Daily mail route from New York to New Orleans, and on the new and splendid line from Palatka, Fla., via Macon, Ga., to Birmingham, Ala. For healthfulness it has no superior. It has two of the best female colleges in the South, and an excellent male high school. The various religious denominations are represented by nine churches. The town is lighted by electricity and has a fine system of water works. Two strong banks furnish all necessary money for business enterprises. The famous “Terraces” or Terrell flower gardens are within a mile of the heart of the town. There is a $400,000 manufacturing plant here, embracing the LaGrange Cotton Mills, foundry and machine shops, oil mills and guano factory, all under our management.
“There are two carriage factories, a plow factory, planing mills, variety works and ice factory all inside the city limits. A canning factory will soon be erected, and a public school system will be established.
“LaGrange is surrounded by one of the best agricultural regions in Georgia.
“The farm lands are fertile, easily cultivated and yield abundantly under intelligent culture. There has not been anything like a failure of crops in twenty-five years through this section. The climate is all one could wish. Extreme heat and cold are rare. Our lands are rolling, with natural drainage; plenty of timber and pure water. Farmers can work their lands in half a day after the heaviest rains.
“The agricultural interest is undergoing a great and rapid change for the better. We have abandoned the one-crop idea.
“Since January 1st, 1894, there has not been sold at this point more than one car of Western corn and meat. It has not been many years since forty cars of those two items were sold in about the same time.
“Lands here can be bought at a bargain. Our largest land owners see the great importance of increasing our white population, and are in thorough accord and sympathy with any movement looking to an improvement in that direction, and stand with open hearts and friendly hands to welcome a sturdy thrifty class with a little money and plenty of will and energy.
“One attraction, of the many worthy of an immigrant’s consideration in this county, is the fact that the farmer has a home market for his surplus farm products. Within a few months from now there will be a demand, within a circle of fifteen miles around LaGrange from the cotton mills already in operation and nearing completion, for 10,000 more bales of cotton than the county raises; that means 30,000 bales; we raise annually about 20,000. Many thousand bales will be sent direct from the fields, as it is gathered, to the factory, where the spot cash will be in waiting for the cotton and the seed, the value of the seed amounting to, or adding to the cotton, at least one cent a pound. The mill operatives furnish a market for thousands of dollars’ worth of the farmers’ surplus food products.
“Clover and grasses grow to perfection here, the Bermuda grass especially, which furnishes nine months pasturage and yields bountifully of a hay second only in nutritive value to the purest timothy.
“Here are some facts and figures from actual experience in farming in this vicinity: $96 worth of Bermuda hay from one and a quarter acres; $60 worth of rust proof oats from one acre; $64 worth of corn from one acre; 2180 pounds lint cotton (a fine variety) from one acre, sold for $174.40 and the seed brought $120.
“We have a farmer in this county who twelve years ago was not worth over $1000 and whonow owns unencumbered property worth over $30,000; made it all farming; has never engaged in any other business.
“The thanks of every Southern man and woman are due you for the service you are doing them. And every respectable immigrant who is influenced by you to seek a home anywhere in this State, I know will not live here long before his obligations to you will be expressed.
“This country and any other will be truly great when the man who pushes the plow is landlord of the sod he turns.”
A real estate and immigration agent in Iowa writes to theSouthern Statesas follows:
“I have been reading theSouthern States, and am deeply interested in its work. I have been engaged in immigration work myself for thirty years, and I readily see some of the difficulties in the way of promoting immigration to the South. These can be readily overcome. With the use of proper methods, there is nothing in the way of bringing about a large movement from the Northern States to the South. The people of the North are finding it a matter of necessity to change their location, and this matter of moving to the South is of as much interest to them as it is to the people of the South. The matter rests largely with the railroad companies. With proper inducements and co-operation, agents could be gotten to go through the South on tours of inspection, whose reports on their return would influence large numbers of families in their communities. They would, of course, bear their own expenses, but they should have free transportation over the railroads. Facilities of this sort should, of course, be extended only to men of standing and reputation and influence at home, whose favorable report would lead to the removal of numbers of families in a body. I have taken parties of farmers into the West and the Northwest. I am in a position to explain to inquirers every feature of every county, for example, in Kansas and Nebraska. It would be easier to get them to go South; but I am sure of what information to give concerning Kansas and Nebraska, while my knowledge of the South is to some extent limited. I have a great many inquiries about the South. I am solicited now by a number of the best farmers of Iowa to go South and look the country over, get a list of lands for sale, prices, terms, etc., and find out for them what the conditions actually are. There is great interest in the South, and from all I hear and read it seems to be infinitely superior as a place for home-seekers to the far West, but the railroads and others interested have got to be as liberal in developing and fostering immigration efforts as the Western railroads have been, in order to bring about any extensive movement of this sort.”
Mr. W. M. Duncan, president of the Citizens Bank, Eureka Springs, Ark., writes to theSouthern Statesas follows:
“In this section of Arkansas, commonly spoken of as North Arkansas, by which is meant the two northern tiers of counties across the State, the financial condition of the farmers is better than at any time during the past five years. They are raising increased food supplies, and yet have very materially decreased their debts and improved their properties. Very little cotton is grown north of the Boston mountains; corn, oats, rye and sorghum being the chief cereals, while cattle, hogs and sheep are raised to great advantage and profit. There has not been a failure of any crops in the last five years. The outlook for the farmers this year is very good, and that of itself makes the general business situation of the towns and cities in this section most favorable.
“The great financial depression through which the country has recently passed was felt less in this section of the Southwest than in any other, from all reports. The reason was, our farmers were all well stocked with fat marketable hogs and cattle, and were able thereby to quickly realize on the same and meet the calls on them from their bankers, made necessary by the foolish alarm from lack of confidence so generally experienced in all financial institutions.
“Our greatest industry, yet very small, fruit raising (especially apples), merits the attention of all persons looking for a location to engage in apple raising. The apples of North Arkansas have taken the first prizes at New Orleans, San Francisco, Boston and the World’s Fair. There are several thousand acres of young apple trees which will bear the first fruit during the coming year, and as many more trees have been planted during the past two years. Our climate is especially adapted for this.
“The present status of business with the merchants and general stores is a great deal betterthan expected, and by early summer it is believed the return to the customary good trade will be accomplished.”
Mr. G. B. Randolph, of Anniston, Ala., writes to theSouthern Statesas follows about his observations on recent trip to the Northwest: “I met many farmers and stock-raisers; also small fruit growers. (The latter can do but little in that section). I find a strong disposition among the people there on account of the severe winters and bad roads to come to a more agreeable climate. This of course is to be expected; people will naturally gravitate to a country holding out the greatest inducements. Here we not only have mild winters but our summers are not as hot as those in Illinois. A case of sunstroke is unheard of in this State. Our soil is productive and easily tilled. The character of our soil is red clay and sandy loam, and will produce anything that can be raised in the temperate zone. A great deal of attention is now being turned to fruit, vineyard and berry culture. Also we are proving this to be a fine country for tobacco culture. We have a remarkably healthy country. A case of lung trouble I never knew of originating here. As an indication of the attention being paid to this section, will say that within the past two days I have had inquiries for lands from the States of New York, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. Will be glad to answer any inquiries from prospective settlers. We have heretofore been greatly handicapped by excessive railroad rates to prospectors and immigrants; now I am glad to say the roads are showing a spirit of liberality, and we now have excursions the eighth of each month. Round-trip tickets for one fare good for twenty days are being sold by the different lines in the North for all points in this section.”
The Memphis Appeal-Avalanche says: “From present indications the labor problem in the Mississippi valley is about to solve itself. The answer is a simple one—the substitution of white labor for black.
“Everything seems to indicate that the shiftless, easy-going, debt-making negro, dependent all the year round on the man who is running him, will soon be a thing of the past. Of course there are some negroes who are exceptions to the rule—who pay their debts when they make them, who live economically, who know the value of a dollar—but they are few and far between.
“That the Mississippi Delta is the garden spot of the earth no one doubts. Its soil is ever responsive to the hand of the tiller. It is capable of raising the most diversified crops. As a cotton country it has no equal. All kinds of fruit flourish in its kindly temperature. The forest abounds in the most valuable woods. As a stock raising country it is equal to the blue grass region of Kentucky. All that the Delta needs is the hand of man to develop it, and man is beginning to realize that his labor will count for more there than anywhere else.
“As an example of the difference between Caucasian and negro labor, an instance which recently came to light is invaluable. A wealthy planter, owning a Delta farm, let part of it to some foreign families; the rest to negroes. The foreigners worked hard. They raised diversified crops. They lived as cheap as they could, and at the end of the year they had not only paid their rent, but they had their barns stocked with supplies and well-filled bank books. The negroes had not paid their rent and were heavily in debt, besides being dependent on outside help for supplies to run them through the year to come. The two classes of tenants were exactly opposite, the one representing independence, the other dependency.
“The Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad, recently purchased by the Illinois Central system, passes directly through the Delta. It owns a great deal of the land through which it passes, and is now making a systematic effort to settle it with immigrants from the Northwest and Europe. At present a large tract of land, known as the Bogue Phalia district, is receiving the benefit of most of this effort, and the families are rapidly moving in and taking possession.”
The Times-Union, Jacksonville, Fla., utters these profound truths: “Capital is like Providence in just one respect. It helps those who help themselves. It will take no risks in a community where the people brand investments as bad by refusing to take part in them. Capitalists know that men everywhere are looking for good investments, and an enterprise that does not secure home support is presumed to be a bad investment, no matter how much talk there is for the purpose of convincingmen to the contrary. The present is an auspicious time. Millions of dollars of Northern capital are seeking investment, and they will go to such places as prove rather than assert faith in the investments they offer.”
The Atlanta Constitution, in making editorial comment on an item in theSouthern States, says:
“We contend that the South is the most promising section in the Union for enterprising farmers who will conduct their business in the right way. The Northern and Western farmers are beginning to see this. They are coming to the conclusion that it is short-sighted policy for them to purchase land at $100 or more per acre when they can buy plenty of good farming land in the South at from $5 to $25 per acre. A Northern farmer needs at least forty acres, and this will cost him in his own section $4000. This sum would buy him at $25 per acre a Southern farm of 160 acres, but he can easily find good land at much lower figures. Indeed, with $1500 or $2000 a farm of 150 or 200 acres can be purchased in a productive region. The Northern farmer who comes South and sticks to his diversified crop plan will keep out of debt and make money from the start. He will find, too, that he will enjoy here the same conveniences, facilities, institutions and society that he has always been accustomed to at home. He will suffer none of the drawbacks of moving to a new country among strangers. Our people are native Americans—98 per cent. of them—and the Americans from other sections who come here easily assimilate with them, and there is no sectional prejudice to make it unpleasant for strangers. When an immigrant makes it apparent that he is a good citizen his Southern neighbors readily extend the right hand of fellowship without asking him where he hails from.”
Here is the opinion of an editor who moved from Nebraska to Tennessee and is now editing the Advance of Harriman:
We came South from a State as fair as any under the sun. In some respects it is unequalled by any land we have ever seen. But that is not what makes a country desirable for a life-long, all-the-year-round residence.
With all the desirable qualities of Nebraska, and there is no Northern State that can excel or even equal it, there are some disadvantages that render it more than a hundred per cent. inferior to this country.
In the first place, there are no minerals, no timber, and, consequently, no manufacturing to supply a home market for produce. All surplus grain must go to a foreign market, and the distance and freight are so great, as to leave but very little for the farmer. Corn more frequently sells for less than twenty-five cents a bushel than it does for more than that, or even that figure.
Then the long winters and severe blizzards. We know what they are, for we battled with them for a good number of years, and are in a position to judge between the climate of that country and this.
Concerning the outlook for farming in this country, we are convinced of two facts.
The first is, that the same kind of farming given to this Southern soil that is given to the the land in the North will result in just as good crops. Of this we have no doubt whatever.
The second is, that while the farmers of the Northwest have to sell their produce for the lowest possible price, depending entirely on a foreign market, here, with our stores of undeveloped minerals, and immense quantities of timber to be manufactured, the farmer can depend on a good local market for the next hundred years.
The Age-Herald, Birmingham, Ala., says: “The disposition among Northern and Northwestern farmers to come South is every day becoming more apparent. They long for the salubrious climate and fertile soil of the South. When the South is covered by small farms owned by industrious white farmers, then it will blossom as the rose. The negro shows a disposition to get away from the farm. He is a social creature and loves the society and excitement of the town. He flocks to the furnaces and mills around the city. He can stand heat and enjoys the hot work of the furnaces. He makes more at the public works. He is thriftless and cannot manage, and can’t make farming pay. It is possible that there will be a considerable shifting of places between the whites and blacks, resulting in good to the entire country.”