The Forrest City times. [volume] (Forrest City, Ark.) 1871-1919, 1897-10-15
ADVERTISING A STATE.
Citizens of Arkansas Should Adopt
Means to Secure More Factories.
a Way to Create a Home Market For the
Products Of Fsrmers-Every County In
the State Adapted to General
Or Special Crops

Not until within few years has
there been any effort worthy of note
TO advertise Arkansas, and yet the
per cent. of increase in population has
been larger than that of any other
southern state except Florida, and the
ratio is yet held. Moreover, the assessed
wealth of the state has kept pace with
the population increase. showing sound
and general prosperous conditions of
the people. Trains of covered wagons
have arrived from all points of the
compass and at all seasons. year in and
year out, bringing in, as a rule, farmers
of limited means who have settled on
small tracts of cheap lands and en-
gagged in the work of building up a
home. Colonies, too, have come by rail
and settled in communities here and
there, whose steady work of developing
soil resources has been rewarded with
success. But Arkansas has never ex-
perienced an immigration boom-that
is to say, such an influx of newcomers
as has marked certain eras in the his
tory of Kansas and Nebraska, and one
reason is there has never been gem
eral and systematic effort made by the
people of Arkansas to induce the tide
of home-seekers to turn this way. The
land department of the Iron Mountain
railroad has expended large sums of
money in advertising its lands and
local immigration societies have at
times sent out descriptive matter, but
these efforts are nothing compared to
the vigorous and unceasing endeavors
which few years ago characterized
the people of Kansas and other western
states, especially Kansas.
How They Advertised Kansas.
A few years ago the traveller would
see specimens of Kansas products at all
the union stations of the eastern cities.
Sheaves of wheat and oats, ears of
corn, flax and samples of peaches, APP
Piles and other fruits were on display,
together with maps and descriptive
literature in unlimited quantity. In
fact, every eastern railroad depot had
q Kansas department, many of which
were supplied with special agent to
give information not contained in
printed circulars Then, too, the news
papers of Kansas. regardless of poll
state. Every citizen placed the name
of some eastern friend on the editors
mailing book. Every new conner sub
scribed for the local newspaper and
had copy sent to his brother or
brother-in-law back east, and every
paper spoke of big corn and marvellous
yields of wheat, mammoth pumpkins,
watermelons and potatoes; of splendid
hotels, church edifces and school
houses; of magnificent opera houses,
colleges and public buildings. All the
pleasing features of the new state were
made conspicuous by the editors and
each week the mail discharged tens of
thousands of these newspapers into the
eastern and middle states to be read
by the persons receiving them and then
handed TO the next door neighbor As
the continuous dropping of water wears
away the rock, so the continuous read
ing of the wonders of Kansas had its
effect. People sold their eastern homes
and went to Kansas to invest the pro-
ceeds. Numerous and various sur
prises were in store for them. Within
. mile of town having a big opera
house and mammoth hotels, they would
find people living in sod house. But
they were there to stay and they made
the best of IL. They in turn sent local
papers back to their sisters aud their
cousins and their aunts. The effort was
magical. More neighbors followed, and
in spite OF cyclones, drouths and locusts,
the prairie land of Kansas is now known
as the great grain field OF the universe.
while the people who few years ago
inhabited sod houses now live in the
finest farm houses the country affords.
Systematic and persistent advertising
accomplished the work.
What Bss Been Demonstrated.
Every county in Arkansas is adapted
To either general or special crops. or
both, granting the farmer the privil-
eye OF choosing between the one and
the other. Soil unfriendly to cotton
will yield renumerative crop OF some
kind. though what special crops are
adapted 10 the different soils is a ques.
tion not generally understood. but
knowledge in this line is being brought
TO light by the experiment stations.
Not many years ago Grand Prairie was
thought 20 be designed for perpetual
grass plot ON which 10 Craze the farm
er's herds This splendid tract of prai-
ries lies between the Arkansas and
White rivers and is % miles long by
about 20 wide, with light eolored soil
which is more fertile a foot or two
below than at the surface. consequently
inexhaustable. Cotton does not thrive
on II as on valley OF cleared lands.
though fair crops have been raised in
favorable season, but for general farm
ing IL Ii admirable, Colonies of Ger
mans occupy large tracts Of this prairie
land and have demonstrated that il Is
adapted to cereals. potatoes, grapes,
and fruits which ripen early, while
hay is its natural product. two crops OF
which are harvested every year. The
town OF Stuttgart is situated near the
geographical center OF the prairie.
The visitor who goes 10 Stuttgart ex-
pectirg 10 meet German speaking
community will soon discover his mis-
take. No place in Arkansas has so