Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1871-07-01

Land, ana III some respects this
chaming valley Is superior to that ;
for with a climate just as soft, 1t is
better wooded and watered.
Idiscover / in your State many un-
occupied fields of industry which
would be very attractive to the for
eigner, and especially inviting to the
Germans and French, the Scotch,
Dutch and English, with their skill,
energy, industry, ingenuity, frugal
ity and resources.
Your climates are as theirs-not
divided out into seasons of wet and
dry, like Spanish America-but Or
dained for winter and summer,
spring and autumn, with fruitful
showers at all seasons. Your annu-
al rain fall is about forty inches,
and corresponds to that of France,
England and Germany, with more
sunshine than any of those, (or even
ltaly) and q climate altogether as
lovely and as healthy. Everything
that can be cultivated in France, Ger
many Or England may be grown in
Tennessee equally as well, with 9TH
er things besides, such as Indian
corn, cotton, tobacco, peanuts, broom
corn, sweet potatoes, etc, which are
not known as staples there.
The climates and soils of Tennessee
sec are as favorable to cultivation of
the grape and the manufacture of
wine as they are in France and Ger
many. The mulberry and the worm
for silk would find more genial eli
mates and favorable conditions here
than there. So with the beet and its
sugar, hops and beer, olives and oil,
for where figs grow the olives
thriyes.
Water power of vast extent, and
mill sites Of offering manufacturing
facilities ofthe most desirable nature,
free from interruption, alike from
the frosts Of winter, and the droughts
Of summer, abound in all parts of the
State. But there they are; the one
vacant, and the other running by to
waste for the want of capital and
labor.
If we look below the surface at the
treasures that are contained there we
shall find that the openings for capi-
tai and labor, and the fields for en-
terprise below the soil are quite as
rich with promise and as inviting as
those above it.
But let lis return to the plan for
bringing emigrants from abroad into
our borders and follow it up q little
further. Forty acres ofland on long
credit, or rent for a few years to
family OF five-the introduction of
two hundred families on the average
to each county. Why, that calls in
the aggregate for only 6,720,000 acres
out Of the 52,000,000 of unimproved
and waste lands which the census
of 1860 tells us were lying idle in Ten
nessee. Reserving each one to your
selves farm Of ninety acres, which,
not including woodlands and waste
acres, is as much as you cultivate now
on the average, would leaYe enough
space in the whole State for upward
of 2,4S0,000 farms, of forty acres each,
and houses for more than 1900, 900
newcomers to follow the 81, 600 that
it Is probable you should aim to start
with
Nor is this all. BE neighborly; re-
ceive these new comers with hospitali-
ty; treat them kindly; encourage them
by the benefit Ofyour own experience as
old residents. Send them helping
hand whenever you can, and assist
them to do well. By SO doing, you
make every one of them missionary
in your cause, writing and preaching
up to kinsmen and friends in the old
country the advantages and blessings
of their new homes, thus keeping up
for you, with increasing force, the tide
of INN igration, which you and you
alone, in our day and generation, have
the power to put in motion.
Now, for the per contra. What
will you lose by this plan? You will
lose for some years the uses of forty
acres Of land, which is now lying idle;
which you have not the power to cul-
tivate; which you cannot rent or sell,
and which is impOvishing you to keep.
In other words the plab suggested is
so rich with promise that you can't
lose and may win.
These people will come to you per-
haps not with tho accents OF mother
tongue upon their lips, but with q
language, social habits, manners and
customs not your own, and peculiar
to themselves. Therefore encourage
them to come in settlementS give
: them in fee simple and at once, as fast
as they ceme in settlements of not less
than, sites for villages, churches
and schoolhouses.
Suppose that in 1865 you had pro
ceeded to organize some such effective
plan for the encouragement of emigra
tion, by offering 5000 acres in eacl
county, in 10000 tracts, upon easy
terms, you certainly would have go
some immigrants. Do you think yol
would have been worse off than yol
are now? On the contrary, woulC
: your lands have been as unsaleable o.
1 they are at present? AS 1t is, insteaC
of increasing, l think the value o
:, your land has decreased-that is, they
c are not worth as much now, in 1871
A as they were in 1860. The censu
n gives the cash value of farms, BY
. counties, in 1850. The average theI
: for your State, was about $270, 900, ,00
q -$13 the acre.
! The wealth of the State Is in he
= own bosom, and that belongs to you
= = If you can dispose of portion Of you
surplus acres at fair prices, you viii
= be placed again in a position whicl
i will enable you to exercise the infiu
}. ence and control that you exerted 70
: such great and noble purposes before
g and do not see how you can SO dis
L pose Of these vast possessions in you
q lifetime, unless you can induce capi
6 tai and labor to come into the Stat
n more rapidly than they are, or hav
q been doing since the war. Unless yol
= do this, you will lose control of tb
State, and your children be mad
hewers Of wood. They will no longe
c be the men Of Tennessee.
g The most ready way of doing thi
d is to advertise and make known +
c those who are quitting the old coun
Q try, before they quit, the advantage
5, which Tennessee and Tennesseean
i are prepared to offer them ifthey vii
N come to you direct. Tell them of he
n undeveloped resources and their ex
:, = haustless character. Tell them wha
= facilities you are prepared to Offel
l. what inducements you are disposed {
hold out, and what encouragement