Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-12-07
MIDDLE FLORIDA TRADE.
The Crops-Inducements to Immi-
grants.

/ The CropS-1nducements to Tmmi-
! grants.
Correspondence Of the Morning Nesos.
MARIANA, FLA, Dec. 2-Starting
from Bainbridge about a week since l
crossed the Georgia line to Quincy, Fla.
"a buggy ride of % miles), thence
by the Florida Railroad and Navigation
Company to Monticello, returning by
same route to Quincy, and thence to Chat
tahOochee, and from that junction" via
the Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad to
this point, trip occupying three days,
including stOppages, and one which gave
me ample time for observation and in
quiry as to the movement of the cotton
crop and the condition of business in this
section of Florida.
Observation showed clean picking and
hardly lock of cotton to be seen in the
fields, and the reports in the towns almost
unvaTying, that the crop was gathered
and being rapidly marketed, andI Judge
from numerous inquiries that the out
turn has been much better than last
season, and that the farmers are paying
up; and though trade is not brisk, the
merchants are hopeful of doing a tair
winters business.
The few commercial men, I have met
tell me orders are light, and they seem to
be moving about more with the view of
pushing collections and of apprOximating
the prospective needs of their customers
than of selling goods.
Compared with Eastern and Middle
Florida very little has been known of this
part of the State, but the completion of
the Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad has
given some prominence to the old towns,
and many of the new ones, dating their
existence from the completion of the
railroad, are apparently thriving, and as
soon as the land, much of which is held
in large tracts, is opened for sale and at a
reasonable price, it is probable that the
tide Of immigration may be diverted from
East to West Florida.
1 am told that much of the land in this
section is capable of a high state of cul-
ture. The advent into this section of a
handy, practical class of farmers, who
will buy up, clear and cultivate the land,
will be welcomed by the best men Of the
country, and such settlers with their
habits of industry and thrift, induced by
education and necessity in the rugged
school of colder climate, and perhaps a
sterile soil, would impart, if not to this,
certainly to the rising generation of
farmers in this section, lessons of in
dustry, practically and economy.
AS the Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad
was projected by and is controlled and run
in the interest of the Louisville and Nash
vile Railroad, 1T is natural that that corpo-
ration should seek to turn the trade of this
section towards its southern terminus
and this it is doing with vim and a
seeming Gberality that indicates a hearty
response from those who have cotton to
ship.
All through this section, and even in
Middle and Eastern Florida, now cemented
to Mobile and New Orleans by eontinu-
Gus line or system of railroads, the drum
mers of those two cities permeate in the
business seasons, seeking and securing
trade, and to these representatives of
merchants, special rates are given. and
the fare, five cents per mile for local and
transient through travel, is reduced to
half rates by the issue of mileage books.
Cotton buyers on this, the Pensacola
and Atlantic, line and shipping over this
road to Pensacola and its connections to
Mobile and New Orleans, have free passes
on this, 1 know, and perhaps on the con-
Meeting roads, and these buyers may be
seen all through this section of Florida,
in the interior towns, like Greenwood and
CampbelltOn, Fla, and Newton, Geneva,
Ozark, Elba, Gordon and Columbia. in
Alabama, and I have heard Of shipments
being induced by New Orleans cotton
buyers from towns in Georgia adjacent to
the ChattahOOchee river. How far these
advanced skirmishers Of a commercial
army entrenched beyond the Chattahoo-
chez will make inrOads upon the trade of
the southwestern towns of Georgia, must
be determined by the enterprise and skill
OF their merchants and those Of the At
lantic ports, combined with the foresight
and liberality of the railroad corporations
centering there. S. FL. D.