The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-09-06
SOUTHERN PROGRESS
DISCUSSION or CATTLE RAIsINo
 INDUsT1x.
Census Figures Show Some Things 3 Not creditable to This Section of the country-0r.
 Haden's Letter.

Baltimore. Sept. 5.-tspecial) Connect
 cd directly with the industrial growth of the South Is the question of cattle raising.
 Not only Is a population increasing
 through industry to be furnished its beef
 raised at home, but increasing employ
 ment in industry Is to be offered in the handling of cattle in all its forms from
 the field to the consumer.
 Census figures show that in five inn
 portant Southern States there was in 1900 smaller number of neat cattle than
 there was in 1880 and in two of them smaller number In 1900 than 1880. A num-
 Der of factors have contributed to the actual decline in the number of cattle in some States together with failure in others of the increase to keep pace with
 the increase if population. One of them Is the habit of selling young stock for shipment to the West to be grazed and killed there and to be returned to the South as beef. The lack of economy In such a policy is being impressed upon
 Southern farmers, and there are signs of deep interest In { revival of cattle
 raising and in packins-house .undertak-
 ings. Bearing upon that movement is letter in this weeks issue of The Manu-
 lecturers Record from MT. c. J. Haden
 of Atlanta, Ga, embodying the results of
 a trip he has made in the West. He com
 pares the high plains of the West with
 the vast stretches of pine timber plains
 of the Southeast with fifty inches of
 rainfall a year, situated on an average
 1000 miles nearer the markets and as yet
 unused for agriculture, and he says:
 Our Southeastern lands escape the de-
 structive blizzards and snowstorms that
 E<- Atr1Nn A = rcd
 that the grazing lands of the far West
 are from A0oo to 5000 feet above sea level,
 and the. best of them tparticulariy those
 parts near the Rocky Mountains) are subjected to heavy snow falls.
 The casual observer who first passes through the Western plains and then through South Georgia forests will sat- isfy himself at glance of the greater quantity of grass on the latter. Cattle growing, which has been carried on in these forest lands in a small way, ad- justed to the feeble finances and luke warm enterprise of the native settlers,
 has been practically all profit. The wa tering and wintering necessary in the West are unknown requisites. Hitherto herding has also been unnecessary, but this last item must be considered if the industry is pursued on considerable scale. Persons remote may be surprised to know that although Georgia was one of the thirteen original States. yet with in seventy-five miles of the first settle ment (Savannah) the traveller may ride across the forests ten miles without sec ing the habitat of man. Georgia, tho largest State in square miles east of the
 Mississippi River. having depended for | nearly a. century upon natural reproduc- | ton, unaided by immigration, is yet de- | cidedly pioneer at both it's northern and southern ends Hence there Is sufficient | grazing at present not utilized for mill | lions of cattle. Add to these facts that water is abundant. if not on the surface. accessible by shallow wells. costing to | dig from s to $10 each, or at most arte-
 sian wells costing on an average of $500, and there is a conclusive showing in fa- | vor of the Southeast as against the far West.
 "The land privileges in the Southeast
 would be less in proportion to the feed 1 ing power of the grass than in the plains. l But as the Southeastern lands are in the
 most part timbered, or even where cut | over are valuable for general farming
 purposes, with sufficient timber remaining
 for farm uses, the stock-grower would probably prefer to be his own landlord.
 We can then at small cost supplement | where needed with improved grasses.
 "The actual expense Is less to equip a | ranch for beginning in the Southeastern | pine lands than on the Western plains. | The peculiar advantage of the pine land | country Is in the fact that more grass is | found in a less area, bringing the herds closer to a given point which facilitates | business. The absence of the harassing | coyote. the sleepless thief of the night l. that eats away the ranchmans dividend, | is also a cumulative argument in behalf | of the inviting forests along the South Atlantic. The high prices of (, tile and cheapness of the land warrant an inflow | ing verdict"