Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1895-10-03
West Alarmed at the South.

At the National Irrigation
Congress recently held at Aibu-
querque, New Mexico, Mr.. Viii
liam E Smythe, chairman Of tne
National Executive Committee.
uttered this significant sentence
in delivering his address on the
work Of the year: 1--WE cannot
disguise the fact that the South
o-day is our aggressive compel
itor in the matter of attracting z
new population. With supreb
enterprise it is pushing for peo-
pie"
This strikingly indicates the
way in which the constantly in-
creasing tide OF Immigration to
th3 South has attracted the at
tentiop Of the Western investors
and land owners. They realize
the fact that the thousands Of
miles OF Southern lands, which
offer every advan 0age to he TIL
Ter of the soil in the Way of eli
mate, variety Of crops and fertil-
ify OF land, present a comblna-
ton Of attractions which are far
more tempting to the settler
than most of the Western coun-
try. The fact that IN mauy
States, not only in New Mexico,
but Kansas, the Dakotas and Ne
braska, the farmer must either
depend upon irrigation. and pay
SO much for securing an ade-
quate water supply, or be the
subject Of drouth at least three
or four months in the year, is
one which is being taken into
consideration more and more as
settlers throughout the country
are being educated as to the at
fractions Of the Southern coun-
try. AS a general rule lands in
the South require no irrigation
whatever; consequently, here Is
great item OF expense which is
saved, Add to this the fact that
a farmer can do work of some
kind in crOp-raising every month
in the year; that he can fre-
quently raise three and occa-
slonaIly four crops off the same
land in a year; tkat he can pro
duce his own food supplies, in
cluding meat, at home; that he
has an abundance OF fuel in the
forests at his door, and he does
not need TO pay 81 to so per ton
to keep him comfortable in the
Z
short that they can scarcely be
called winters as compared with
those in the West, and we can
readily see why the South has
caused Sc much alarm among the
land owners West Of the Missis-
sippi river
AS yet the South has not re-
ceived one per cent. of the ad
vertising which railroad compa
nies, immigration agents and
others specially interested have
given the West and NortL west in
the last decade; but the facts and
figures which are monthly pres
sented in the Southern press
generally, and SO convincing that
the Western farmer who reads
them remembers the m and tell 5
them to his neighbour. They
haYe the stamp OF truth upon
them, and after he finds out by a
visit to this section or by careful
inquiry that they are ali true, 1t
is no wonder that he makes prep
arations to locate IN this land Of
plenty as soon as ne can arrange
his affairs to do so.
No matter what the irrigation
congress may do, no matter how
much those interested may seek
to divert the immigration tide
from the South to the West, it
will continue southwark. It has
already made a good beginning,
| and the numbers of homeseekers
constantly locating in the States
| between the Potomac and the
Rio Grande are increasing at
such rate that it will be useless
to attemp5 to turn the great mass
in any other direction