The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1894-08-09
THE GREAT SOUTH,
The GARDEN SPOT OF THE
LAND.
A Future Full of Brightest Prom
ise---It Will be on Top CONNER
cially and Industrially---Advan-
tages in Favor Of This Section
Over the North and West.
| Wilmington Star. !

Wilmington Star
As the South was the last to suffer
and suffered the least from the financial
strlngency which spread over the
country and has not yet disappeared,
SO she will be the first to recover from
it. This is because the South has
greater recuperatlve powers than any
other section OF the country and a
greater variety of resources to fall
back upon.
This is the secret of her wonderful
recover from the prostration of a wal
which destroyed nearly everything OF
value above ground, destroyed hel
labor system, and left her practically
nothing to begin the work of upbuild
ing again but the courage and resolu-
ton of her people and the marvellous
latent resources of her soil. There is
no use in talking about keeping a
country or people like this down.
They may suffer as Others do from un-
propitious seasons that affect injuriously
their staple crops, from commercial or
financial arrangements, but they will
get over these and get on top among
the first.
The West has long had the reputa
ton of being the favored section ol
the United States, and that was the
objective section that the home seeker
from Europe or the migrator from the
older States sought. Nearly all tha,
was said in commentator Of it was
true, for it was in many respects a
favored section, but it was called the
favored section, because the South was
not as we'll known then as she is now,
and the different conditions prevailed
in the South. Compared with the
older Eastern States the young West
was favored section, because her
lands were fertile, easily cultivated,
her transportation by the lake and
river before the days of railroads was
reasonably good, and the cheapness OF
the lands caused them to be eagerly
sought by the man who intended to
make his living by the plow. The
invention and introduction of labor
saving agricultural machinery, which
enabled the farmer to cultivate 4
hundred acres to the ten that could be
cultivated without them, and the con-
struction of railroad systems that
enabled them to transport the products
Of these acres qucklyto the seaboard,
soon made it the great granary of this
country, and the meat producing
section as we'll.
But after grain and meat what has
the Great West, as it is called, to rely
upon? Nothing. Take these away or
seriously interfere with them and the
foundation of her prosperity is gone.
She has no timber resources, no
mineral resources, no resources in the
raw materials that supply manufac
tories, no resources in water powers to
operate them, if built. OF course she
is not entirely destitute of timber,
minerals, raw materials Tor manutaC-
tories or water powers, but she has
these only in limited areas and not
sufficient to constitute important
factors in her prosperity.
Enter railway car at Cincinnati
| and ride through to St. Paul and or
either side the cultivated fields you see
are of wheat, corn and oats, witt
occasionally, perhaps, some pasture
an orchard with some apple trees, and
here and there some speciality. Iou
see cattle in the pastures, few sheel
and a good many hogs, for the hog i
the Western farmers friend, the frame
into which he condenses his corn which
it wouldn't pay him to market in th'
form of corn, but which he mus
market if he markets at all in tn
shape of pork. Without the accom-
mediation, convenient and useful hoI
the average Western farmer would b
very lonesome.
Enter a railway car in the city Q
Washington, or in the city of Louis
vile, and go through to the Ri
Grande You will pass through muc
country where you will see little bu
an apparently unbroken stretch @
forest, either of oak, hickory, &C., o
of pine, depending somewhat on tn
route you take. Occasionally yor
will see a farm, and you might com
to the conclusion that it was an almos
uninhabited country where twent
millions of busy people live. But tn
railroads of the South as a genera
thing follow the ridges (Which ar
generally poor to avoid water course:
and that's why the traveller sees S
few farms and is apt to form an un
favorable impression of the South o
first sight, until he learns better. BIT
all this way the journeyer travels owe
boundleSs and uneXhaustible beds {
mineral, through a forest growt
abounding in nearly all the useful an
commercial timbers, within the SCUM
almost of unlimited water powers an
over land that furnishes variety an
abundance of raw materials for man,
factories equalled nowhere upon tt
earth. If any other one section ha
her cotton, her timber, her iron an
coal, and with any of these her watt
Il powers, it would consider itself rich
+ endowed section, and yet she has a
S these, and with them can, if 81
chooses, grow more wheat, corn, GA,
grass, &c, to the acre than the mo
fertile portions of the Great West, CO
raise scores of merchantable produC
e that the West can not sprout, and
: variety Of orchard and garden frul